My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight
by LordXG3
Summary: In another universe Izuku Midoriya wasn't born quirkless,instead he inherited the quirk of his father Hisashi: The Pro Hero Draco Knight. After receiving One for All from All Might, Izuku must overcome the trials of the dual legacy of his father and his mentor. To become the World's new Symbol of Peace to be: The Fafnir Knight. Part of the "Untold Universe" New updates in August!
1. Shadows of the Lowlands

My dear readers, I have returned to tell the story I started almost six months ago. I am so sorry for the delays and the sudden discontinuation of the original work. However when I set to do something, especially something I've grown to be very passionate about, I tend put my all into it.

The original version was pulled due to both a lack of experience and rather large lacking in self-confidence, and while I still believe myself to be a shit writer not worthy of your time. I have, however gained so much more experience writing and felt like this was the correct course of action.

All your reviews, especially the last ones I got from the original; who commented on how many of you felt heartbroken when I discontinued the original. Genuinely hurt me to read, but it honestly only made me more determined than ever to get back to you guys and kick off the redo of the story.

So to everyone who is here to restart this journey with me once again.  
From the very bottom of my heart.

Thank you, for all of your support.

And a very special thanks to my Beta reader / Editor. A. Mitsuni for putting up with all of my antics and silliness, you my dear are a saint.

NOW WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY!

LET'S BEGIN.

_**\- X**_

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The following story is partly inspired by one of my personal favorite video games.

**_**Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: **_****__**The Fafnir Knight **__**owned by** ATLUS**.

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The following works of fan fiction that also inspired me goes as follows.

**_**Viridescent**_**_** by **__**_**Darkfire1220**_**_**(Available to read on FF, AO3 and Wattpad)**

**_**Deku The Telekinetic Hero**_**_** by **__**_**Sremiehzla**_**_**(Available to read on FF)**

**_**Torchbearer**_**_** by **__**_**btn29**_**__**(**_**Available to read on FF)**

**_**Phoenix (Original)**_**_** by **_**__**Dewyn**__****(Available to read on FF, AO3)**

**_**The Power of Five**_**_** by **__**_**Tacmaster8**_**_**(Available to read on FF)**

**_**Semper Fast**_**_** by **_**__**AboveTail**__****(Available to read on FF and AO3)**

Every single story above is an amazing alternate universe story set using My Hero Academia and each has something very special that makes them unique in their own way and I heavily recommend you give these all of read as well.

**Warning: This story will contain heavy spoilers past season four; anime only watchers you have been warned.**

Some characters will have some adjustments in background, personalty and even quirks to reflect some the changes made to the timeline of events.

And finally, please I cannot stress this enough. Please review and let me know what you think especially if you are a returning reader from the original version.

Author's notes and commentaries will also be very important and recommend you that read them often.

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Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

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**_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_**

__**Saga I: Dusk**__

**_**Arc I: Origins**_**

**_**Chapter I: Shadows of the Lowlands**_**

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"_**The boundaries which divide Life from Death are, at best, shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?"**_

**– Edgar Allan Poe**

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"_Izuku!"_

A sound.

The boy had heard it, and he had found it odd after being suspended in nothingness where darkness and silence reigned. How long had the boy been there? He had not known.

A minute?

An hour?

A year?

An eternity?

He had been in the void with no thoughts, no light, or sound, but only the knowledge that he was both somewhere and nowhere. That is why the sudden noise that pierced through the darkness had both terrified and excited him. Then it happened, he heard again followed by new sounds.

No, not just sounds.

_**Voices.**_

"_Izuku!"_

_"Papa!"_

_"Izu!"_

_"Midori!"_

_"Midoriya!"_

_"Beat him!"_

_"Fight on!"_

_"Please come back home... Please back to us... Please, come back to me."_

Now he could feel something on his shoulder...since when did he have a shoulder?

Then a new sound, _**no.**_

A new voice.

"Hey...are you okay?" He heard the voice say.

It was deep, strong voice, and yet had an air of friendliness to it. As he heard the voice, a new sensation could be felt; solid ground. The boy stirred, and he slowly managed to open his eyes.

For a mere moment, he thought he was blind when he saw nothing but pure, white nothingness. As he blinked his eyes however, he began to see blots of color and rough shapes appear before his vision as if he were waking from a deep slumber. Slowly, but surely, he began to see outlines and more refined details come into view.

He felt so heavy, yet somehow found strength in his newly rediscovered limbs.

_Had they always been there?_

"Careful now, friend. You look like you have been through a lot." He heard the voice say again. The boy tried to sit up, only to lay back down burdened by his own weight. Then, he felt a strong, yet gentle, arm wrap around his back to help him sit up slowly.

"It is a strange place to take a nap, my friend."

The boy blinked once again. He was met with the sight of another boy around his age, perhaps a bit older with soft sandy hair that bordered on being snow white, he had golden eyes and tanned skin. The stranger wore a white flowing robe without a right sleeve, although his strangest feature was his right arm. It was black and green, almost twisted and clawed with what appeared to be a hooked blade upon his forearm.

The boy lifted his own right hand to try and rub the grime of slumber from his eyes, as he did however a bulky foreign weight made it difficult to move.

"Careful now, or you might hurt yourself."

The boy seemed puzzled by the stranger's remark, but he still hadn't found his voice to speak up. What is when he saw his own hands and, to his shock; inhaled his first real breath since his awakening.

He took a good look at himself and noticed his left arm was fairly normal, save for a few scars that lined up and down his forearm. His right arm and hand, however, was clawed with dark emerald scales that shined like polished steel with the exception for a few deep cracks within the pattern of his arm. He should've been terrified at the sight, and yet he somehow felt that it was nothing to be worried about.

The boy finally took the chance to take a good look around himself and see where he was. He was in the lowlands of a valley, with nothing but white grass upon a white sky; no visible sun could be seen. Only the black rocky outlines and shadows of the mountains on the horizon was where the boy could see breaks in the white heavens above.

"Are you a Fafnir Knight as well?"

The boy turned to look at the stranger that had asked him the question. After taking in another breath of air, he finally found his voice all whilst struggling to speak.

"I'm… not sure…" He finally croaked out, followed by a small fit of coughing; "but it does sound familiar."

"It would explain why you are here," The stranger retorted as he patted the boy's back. "Were you on your way to Yggdrasil as well?"

_**Yggdrasil.**_

The boy thought for a moment as he pondered that name. It sounded familiar to him as well, but where had he heard that name before?

"Where is that?"

And yet even as he asked that question, he somehow felt as if he should already know the answer.

The stranger gave him a puzzled look, as though he was told a nonsensical joke. Instead of answering the question, he simply pointed his clawed hand forward. The boy looked to where the stranger was pointing towards and was instantly stunned by the sight.

There ahead was a giant, amber tree that stood proud and tall, so tall that its crown was hidden beyond the clouds in the sky. Its shadow had spread in the lowlands so far out that it nearly covered the whole valley, the beams of light that rained down from the branches and clouds above. Both boys were only yards away from the border of said shadow, as the boy stared at it all for a moment. He could have sworn that that very tree wasn't there moments earlier.

After all, how could he had missed such a large and obtrusive thing right in front of him?

The stranger stood up, helping the boy up onto his feet. "There we are, take it easy and move slowly to regain your balance."

The boy stumbled for a moment before finding his balance and feeling the sensation of his legs once again.

"Ah, in my surprise," The stranger spoke again, making a face as though he had just remembered something, "I have seemed to have forgotten my manners. My apologies, my name is Jin.* What is yours?"

The boy pondered his words in silence for a moment.

_**Name.**_

He shook his head, in the hopes to possibly rattle his brain for an answer. He could scarcely remember anything.

_**What was his name? **_

And then, as if in response, he heard that voice again. It sounded so soft with a touch of sweetness, like a piece of chocolate candy when it reached his ears.

_**Izuku! **_

He turned around to find the source of that voice. The stranger, now known as Jin, continued to gaze at the boy with a kind and patient face, knowing well that his new friend needed some time.

Was that his name? Izuku?

Unsure of the answer, but believing in what he heard in his mind, the boy finally answered.

"Izuku…" He said quietly. "My name is Izuku."

Jin gave Izuku a gentle smile along with a small pat on his shoulder.

"Well then, Izuku… It is nice to meet you."

Izuku smiled with a nod, "and you as well, Jin."

"What will you do next, my friend? The lands here are strange, but I know of a town at the base of Yggdrasil nestled among the roots of the great tree."

Izuku thought again for a moment or two. He didn't have anywhere else to go, no one to see, and no memory to speak of. Yet one thing that was certain was Yggdrasil did sound familiar, much like his name or the title:** Fafnir Knight**.

"Honestly, I haven't a clue," Izuku broke the silence, "but if I am just like you, maybe I was supposed to go to Yggdrasil as well?"

Jin took a few steps forward and with a relaxed sigh, began stretching his limbs. That was when Izuku asked a question to his new friend.

"Jin, tell me. Why are you going to Yggdrasil?"

Jin stopped stretching, still facing away from Izuku. He turned with a slightly more somber tone in his voice.

"My task as a Fafnir Knight has ended. And all I know is that when that happens, we go to this valley and to this Yggdrasil Tree."

"And what was your task?" Izuku felt a small feeling of dread form in his chest as he waited for the answer.

"To rid evil from the land I was sent to, and to break the curse that was upon it." He answered simply before raising his clawed hand; "ironically, with the same power from that very curse itself."

Izuku looked at his own clawed hand with concern especially after seeing that the tips of clawed fingers that was razor sharp.

"Is this a curse?" He asked with some worry.

"You can look at it like that," Jin answered simply; "however, it gave me the strength I needed to save those I loved and cared for. Some would call it a curse, but I found it to be a blessing in disguise, given to me by..." He turned to hide a light blush that was beginning to form upon his tanned face. "By the one I whom loved the most. It is my armor, my proof as a Knight."

"Armor..." Izuku said looking at his clawed arm once again, his scales had shone enough to see a slight reflection of himself, but for only a small moment. In that moment, he saw someone else. It was brief, but familiar face, one he had seen before in what little memories he had of himself.

"Well my friend, shall we head out?" Izuku looked up seeing Jin facing him once again.

"To Yggdrasil?" Izuku asked to be sure.

"To Yggdrasil." Jin affirmed. -

Izuku looked around one more time, before taking a deep breath. If he wasn't going to find his answers staying here, then perhaps he will find them there. He gave a firm nod and and Jin gave him another smile. Izuku began to take careful easy steps before realizing his body was no longer as heavy, and that his balance was much easier to maintain than before.

And so, the two newly-formed friends crossed the border and into the shadow of the lowlands, straight into the valley of Yggdrasil. They both traveled in mutual silence, now on a journey to seek answers to see what awaited a Fafnir Knight when their task was completed. As they walked, there were times when Izuku swore he would see and hear strange things; often just out of the corner of his eyes and just out of his field of vision. Jin, however, either did not see or hear such things, or simply had ignored them.

The laughter of children, and even their small shadows could be spotted from a distance. Izuku kept silent as they walked, but soon enough these sounds and shadows continued to reappear.

**Shadow Children. **

The shadow children played about, their outlines came in all shapes and sizes with only one thing that Izuku could not help but notice. It was something that stood to him even from this distance.

Their eyes.

All of the shadows had either Ruby-red or golden-yellow colored eyes, that and nothing more; still Izuku kept moving on. Somehow, he knew not to disturb them. He felt as though he needed to let them play in fields in peace. When they arrived at the small town nestled in the bosom of the tree's roots, Izuku and Jin could not a find another soul. Only more shadows lingering that only Izuku seemed to see.

"It is a strange place," Jin said ever so softly, yet his words seemed to echo through the hollow town like if he had yelled it out. "A city carved into stone and root with not a soul to be found, and yet it is still so clean..." He finished having his clawed hand touch the various surfaces for dust or dirt, but nothing was left on his clawed finger.

Izuku, on the other hand, saw more shadows who were now adult in size. And again, like the children came in all shapes and sizes.

"Let's go to the base of the tree," Jin suggested.

"What do you think we will find?"

"I'm not sure," Jin said with a hint of sheepishness in his voice. "Like just how I came here. I simply know that is where I need to go."

They continued in the white stone town, passing by bare stalls and shops. To Jin, the whole area appeared empty. But to Izuku, the path before them was buzzing with activity with these shadow people.

_'Do not disturb them,'_ Izuku thought once again.

The shadow people, however, seemed to take notice to the two companions making their way to the great tree. The closer they walked on by, the shadow people began to gain more detailed forms.

Visions of a spiky haired barbarian with a grand fur cloak draped across his broad muscular shoulders, with four other companions sitting together eating and drinking merrily passed on by. Two had ruby red eyes and two had golden yellow eyes. Only the tall lanky one had dark eyes. They were being served by two others, both wearing masks. One of a frog-like person, the other more akin to a bird.

Why did they all seem familiar to Izuku?

Other shadows had strange features, including one that shined above the rest. Izuku could not comprehend how a shadow could ever shine above the others, but this one did. So many shadows all seemed familiar to Izuku.

"_Izuku!"_

He heard that delicate voice again as voice, as sweet as honey. Izuku turned around, and suddenly he was alone with Jin once again. All the shadows were gone as though they were never there, even the shadow of the great tree was gone.

"_Please don't go!"_

He stood there wondering what to do. What was this sweet voice trying to tell him?

"Izuku?"

The poor boy jumped with a yelp when Jin tapped him on the shoulder. His attention had been so focused, he had nearly forgotten about his companion. Jin took a step back to give his friend some space.

"My apologies, my friend I did not mean to startle you," He said, "I found something interesting up a head, but I noticed you stopped following me. Did you find something as well?"

Izuku shook his head, "No, but I just thought… I heard something... or someone."

Jin looked at the boy again with a more somber look.

"You may want to see this, then." He pointed his clawed thumb behind him, then turned around and went up the street that was close of the great roots. Izuku followed behind the short walk until he saw it.

There was an archway that lead directly into the tree itself, and nearby was a statue of a person clad in fierce looking armor with an inscription by the statue's base. Jin pointed at it, in which Izuku began to read it to himself.

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**Oh Knights of Fafnir, armed by the Fell Dragon of the North; terror of the World. Those who use the fallen one's power to rid evil upon cursed lands are welcomed here upon their journey's end. Paradise awaits above to the Knights and their Markers to join one's brothers and sisters in arms.**

**Roar proudly, oh Knights of the fallen Dragon.**

**And always remember these words for they are your proofs.**

**_On the night when evil falls. _**

**_They will be clad in the armor of the fallen Dragon. _**

**_Armor blessed by the gods. _**

**_They will stand before the mighty, before the giants, before the dragons, and before the people. _**

**_Their roars mark them as the vanquishers of evil. _**

**_A roar that call to all that one is a Fafnir Knight._**

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The two young boys looked at each other for a moment before looking back at the archway that led up to trunk of the great tree of life. There before them was some sort of barrier that shimmered in the light. As Jin and Izuku drew closer, both began to feel a strange familiar warmth spread across their bodies and for a moment they both shined and radiated with a bright glow.

Jin shifted and his sandy hair now transformed to a snow white, and his golden-amber eyes turned into ruby-red in pools of midnight. A bright blue light appeared like a hot flame surrounding his body, which darkened his skin to a blackish-blue and ashy color.

Izuku himself shifted as well, his remaining skin changed into emerald green scales. His once bright green eyes were now gold-yellow orbs in a sea of darkness, and his whole body glistened in a rainbow of light. Upon their transformation, both instantly gained a flood of knowledge as they bore their armor together. In unison, both raised their right arms and slashed across the barrier as if they swung a sword, a battle cry emitting from their mouths.

The barrier cracked and shattered, a voice then called out to the two young men.

"_**Welcome Knights of Fafnir, climb up upon Yggdrasil and join us in the paradise above. We await you at the crown. Beware, however, as there are those who would see to it that you fall along the way."**_

It was calm gentle voice, welcoming and kind. Yet, both Izuku and Jin felt a new sense of dread rest deep within their core for what was in store for their journey from here on out.

"Somehow, I knew I have been waiting for this... And yet now that I am here... I cannot help but feel an uncertain fear..." Jin said. "I finished my task..."

Izuku knew what he meant, his words resonating in him. Somehow, he knew that Fafnir Knights come here when all is said in done and yet... why did he feel like it was all wrong? He belonged here as a Fafnir Knight and yet he felt undone, unaccomplished, like he was here too soon. As if there was an invisible force that took a hold of him, compelling him from moving forward.

"Izuku, I'm not sure about you, but I wish to find the answers that have been haunting for quite sometime," Jin turned to Izuku, "I will be heading out from here."

"Wait, are you sure you need to go?!" Izuku frantically asked, not wanting to be left behind alone.

Jin looked at him for a moment, a solemn look left upon his face once again.

"I am. I know that I will find what I am looking for here. But I can also see the hesitation in your eyes and I do not wish to force you to accompany me, my friend."

Izuku didn't know how to answer him. Was he trying to keep his companion here? To keep him from his goal? Or was he afraid of going himself to find his own answers?

"The voice said there are those who would want to see us fall..." Izuku said with his eyes closed. "But I won't let you face them alone."

Jin looked at his friend's face, his mouth agape.

"Izuku, what do you mean by that?"

"I am afraid... but I also know that I could find the same answers you are looking for, too," He answered opening his eyes with a solid look of determination now on his face, "And, if in the end, I decide not to continue, I can at least help getting you to your goal."

Jin stared, then threw back his head with a jovial laugh.

"You are a strange one, my friend, but selfless nonetheless. Are you sure you wish to join me?"

"No, but I will not keep you from your goal, my friend." Izuku finished, raising his clawed hand toward his friend in camaraderie.

Jin looked upon him for a moment, before taking his hand with his clawed hand and shook. Wordlessly agreeing, they both broke through and crossed the archway, the town behind them being swallowed up by light.

**_There was no turning back now._**

Quite a distance away from the great tree that the two knights had begun to climb, there were five souls wandered into the valley of Yggdrasil on a mission to find two lost ones of their own and to bring them back home.

This party was led by another older Fafnir Knight, one who failed in his charge and was forced to wander endlessly on the face of the Earth. Two others among them were the Markers of the Knights. The two markers were a purple haired princess heiress of a Duchy from the lands she hailed, the other a chocolate haired young heroine-in-training.

Time was short, and there was not a moment to lose.

"Izuku... Wait for me... I'm coming."

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**Author's Commentary**

Jin* - Okay. For those of you unaware in the video game. Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: The Fafnir Knight. The story mode features the titular protagonist as a silent nameless character that you can rename. In this case I decided to name the OG Fafnir Knight based on a frequent review and reader of this story. The user by the handle of **Yin Furtive**. (Thanks for permission Yin!)  
Yin not only is a fan of the story, but is also a fan of Etrian Odyssey and has played the game that inspired this fic, so Yin knows what it is like to be a Fafnir Knight.

Additional notes.

There is so much this new chapter sets up, but it will not make sense until we get much deeper into the story. There are two fics in particular that helped influence this specific chapter and future chapters that will explore this area.  
(If I told you what they are, it would spoil like 80% of the whole thing. So I will reveal the two fics when we get to the revelations behind it)

I'm using a mixture of in-game lore, real Norse mythology and the rest of it was made up by yours truly. And I'll go into more detail on why and want in the next chapter.

But one reason I went with this was because of the real legend behind the Nordic myths of the Dragon Fafnir. Which was one hell of greedy evil ass dragon. However I view the idea of changing the myth. Much how stories and legends change over time.

Much like how** One for All** came from **All for One**.  
I like the idea of the power of the evil Fafnir could be turned to serve for good. That is why, I still kept the title of The Fafnir Knight despite it being radically different from both real world mythology and in-game lore.

This is also one of the main reasons I do not mark this as a crossover, along with few more reasons that will explained later.

For anyone concerned on how odd this chapter is, I recommend reading chapter two before judging. This is basically a prologue to a very long story.

There will be more pairings aside from Izuocha but that will be revealed as the story unfolds.

That is all for now.

Thanks for reading, I will see you all in the next update.

Until then as always with lots of love.

**-X**


	2. The Knight

Sooo. I posted this around midnight my time, I go straight to sleep and wake about four and half-ish hours later. I get ready for work. Go to work.

Looong ass day. Lunch time about 14-15 hours after I posted the chapter.

Me: Let's see how the story is doing...2 minutes later, I had to leave the lunchroom because I seriously started crying from all the support I got from you guys right off the bat. I mean damn man. Ah fuck me here I go again.

**_Chapter III_** (Which is going to be one of the brand new chapters not in the original) is nearly done and almost ready to send to my beta reader. It was a tricky chapter to write as I will explain in the author's notes.

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**Reviews! Maybe this will be incentive for reviews as it seems to work for other authors.**

_**sremiehzla & AnimeFan299110:**_ Glad to see both of you return. In case you missed out on the final update in the original version. The general story line will remain unchanged. So we will be reusing some old ground (Like this chapter) However even old chapters will be getting updated (new scenes or reworked scenes) So everything you saw in the original will return as is, but there will be some keys differences.  
(The original chapter II is getting a massive update that will become Chapter IV for this version)

_**Karlos1234ify:**_ Um? Thanks?

_**MyHeroFan398:**_ It's good to be back. I'm feeling much better and up for the challenge I have set for myself.

_**Ooobserver:**_ Thanks for the vote of confidence. I also remember your first post in the original version. I apologize for not responding then. Also I loved your story as well. "The Turnover" Good gods I needed a laugh and you delivered.

_**NekoLover-Chan5697**__:_ Thanks for the complement! I'm not so sure about being unique, I do try to stand out from the authors who inspired me.

_**Omni-Z:**_ Read my response to Sremiehzla & AnimeFan, she'll be back and you'll know what chapter too.

_**Hypernova:**_ Thanks, I...I am very harsh with myself to be frank. (For a number of reasons) And trust me when I say this. I used to be so much worse. But still thank you none the less for the comment. It does mean a lot to me.

_**Renlu:**_Spoilers. That is all I can say, but I'm glad that people are thinking about it.  
Only my Beta reader/ editor knows all the details behind this chapter and others that will come after it. But you are correct, they're still in school.

_**My name is already taken 2462:**_ No joke, this is one of the comments that got me weepy.

_**bp136714:**_ Wait no longer _**Chapter II**_ is here.

_**inFamousSlyMonkey:**_Thanks, now I hope you're hyped for this one too.

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Okay! Now for a new quick segment! Recommendations!  
Easy one for me.

**_Guilt(Izuocha) By IsaacBai._**

It's an interesting story and it's already completed! So you can binge it in a single sitting (That's what I did) I won't give details away since it is better to just start reading from the word go, and going in blind.

But if you love Izuocha+ Eri you will love this too.

If you have trouble finding his story, it's in my favorite's list. Give the guy some love because it is a good story.

(Note this fic is now only available on AO3 under than Orphan Account, as IsaacBai seems to have disappeared from the fan fiction scene)

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight_**

**_Saga I: Dusk_**

**_Arc I: Origins_**

**_Chapter II: The Knight_**

* * *

"_**We do not remember days; we remember moments."**_

-**Cesare Pavese, **_**The Burning Brand**_

* * *

"Mama, is that really how it ends?" Ochako asked sadly as she tried to dry the tears from her eyes. "Even after everything? Why did Jin have to go?"

Tenma looked at her daughter with a sigh, as she finished up reading an old classic from the twenty-first century known as, _**Labyrinth of the World Trees: The Knights of Fafnir**__.*_

It had been a favorite of Tenma's growing up and was now used as a bedtime story for her own daughter, Ochako. It was a grandiose tale of adventure, heroism, and sacrifice, with a bittersweet ending that was said to be fated to all who bore the title of **The****** Fafnir Knight****, the ones who wore the armor made from the **Fell Dragon: Fafnir**. A monstrous and twisted creature of darkness, who's powers now served for justice than for evil.

"It is sweetie, but in the end, his sacrifice is what saved them all. As any brave hero would have done for those they loved."

"Then why do they keep looking for him? If he's really gone?"

Tenma carefully reached out to carefully hold her daughter's hand.

"One of the hardest things to do for someone you love is letting go, but please remember Ochako: he may have disappeared, but it was never said that he truly died when he completed his mission. Jin did something that all previous Fafnir Knights had failed to do...I like to think that in the ending beyond the pages, they found him safe and sound."

It was with this that Ochako finally seemed to calm down. Still engrossed in the story, she asked, "Ma… will I ever find a knight of my own?"

When met with those bright brown tender eyes, Tenma giggled. Ochako was only four years old, and still too young to understand. Nevertheless, it didn't hurt to humor her for a bit.

"Maybe if you find someone that is kind, helpful… someone who can make you feel safe like the heroes that protect us all today, then yes. Yes, you could find yourself a knight, even if they don't exist like they used to today."

She ended with her tucking Ochako under the covers and gently brushing her bangs away to kiss her daughter's forehead.

"Alright dear, now it's time to sleep."

With that Ochako smiled, and sleep soon befell on her, not knowing that she would soon find a knight of her own a few short months later.

* * *

Springtime in _Musutafu Park_ could easily be described as paradise for the children at play. Sunny, warm, and a light breeze blowing cool air every so often; the flowers had returned to bloom after a rather cold and unforgiving winter season. Laughter of the children can be heard throughout the park, be it with the kids romping on the playground or exploring the small forest nearby.

Among those at play was a small squad of four young boys, no older than five years old. They all were official members of the dubbed _Bakugou Agency_ that patrolled the park and _kept villains at bay_ much to the amusement and smiles of several adults at the park, which included the occasional local Pro-Hero who came by for a "Progress Report."

Each of the boys dreamt of joining the ranks of being among the greatest of Pro-Heroes. However for two boys in particular, the leader of the squad: Katsuki Bakugou, and his best friend: Izuku Midoriya, had already jump-started their plans to go to UA Hero Academy.

UA was the academy with the most all-encompassing hero course in the whole country, having taught some of the most famous and prestigious Pro-Heroes in the world, including none other than their heroic idol: All Might, the World's Symbol of Peace. However in the case of young Izuku, this was a matter of family pride as well.

Izuku's own parents had both attended UA during their younger years. His father, Hisashi Midoriya or otherwise known as Pro-Hero Draco Knight, had met his mother Inko, who served as his business management student legacy that UA had on the Midoriya family pressured Izuku into feeling like there was nowhere else he could go. The sooner he was ready, the better his chances of becoming a great hero would be.

"Okay! Break time! Meet back here in twenty minutes!" Katsuki called out to his squad of boys after taking a look his wristwatch.

**"Right!"**

The other three boys answered in unison, breaking off to go to their respective parents. Izuku scanned around the park before spotting his mother sitting at a nearby bench, speaking to another woman who had chest-nut brown hair. Upon walking up to his mother he waited politely, careful not to interrupt them in the middle of their conversation.

"Ah, is that so, Tenma? That is interesting – oh! I'm sorry, my son is here –" Inko turned to her son, "Everything okay, Izuku?"

"Yes mom, I'm fine! Can I please have my lunch now?" Izuku asked. His mother checked at time on her phone and was surprised how quickly time had flown.

"Of course, honey!" She said with a smile as she began to rummage through the bag on her right until she found the small _All Might!_ themed bento box for Izuku.

As Izuku ate his lunch. His mother continued speaking to her new friend until.

"I'm sorry Inko," The woman named Tenma interrupted once she found that she couldn't spot her child from all the kids. "I'm just going to check to see if I can find my daughter before I get back to you."

"I understand, please let me know if you need any help," Inko answered her with a firm nod. WhileInko wasn't too worried for her as the park was known be very safe with local pros often checking in on their patrols and made sure that they could step in at any moment, be it a villain or a child with an out of control quirk. She understood that it was better to be safe than sorry.

As Izuku finished up his bento box, he carefully cleaned it up to keep the container.

"That was yummy," Izuku said with a satfised sigh. "Thanks mom, I'm going to go back to play with Kacchan a little more!"

"Okay, but remember, Izuku. We have to go home soon, okay?" She answered him as she put away the now empty box back in the bag as he walked away.

"Okay!" He answered back with a wave.

As Izuku returned to his friends, he saw Katsuki by himself looking rather annoyed.

"Kacchan!" Izuku called out to get his attention.

"Hey, Ikun…" He sighed with his hands shoved into his pockets.

"What's wrong?"

"There been change of plans, dad says we have to go home," he bitterly answered, clearly disappointed.

"Aw... but we can play again later, right?" Izuku said putting on a sad smile, since the other two boys only played with Izuku because of Katsuki.

"Yeah, but it'll probably won't be until next weekend. But I'll still see ya' at school tomorrow," he answered back and began to walk away.

"Okay then... bye, Kacchan!" Izuku waving at his departing friend who just meet with his father.

Izuku thought for a brief moment on what he should do next, now that Katsuki was gone and he still had a good hour or so to play around the park. Sure, he could just let his mother know he wanted to leave insead an idea came in to mind.

The park had a small forest nearby that was a favor spot to go on patrol, for safety reasons, they always tended to scout the area ahead before going to play to their new patrol route. The group had yet to explore the deeper parts of the forest in the park where some kids said that there was some kind of hidden treasure that could be found.

Izuku didn't care about any treasure, but if he scouted the new area and found a new patrol route for next time, then maybe, just maybe, he could take the lead over the squad. After all, he didn't want to remain as Katsuki's sidekick forever.

He wanted to be just like his father, who owned his own hero agency known as _The Drake's Den_. If he was quick enough, he could scout a new route and then go home early with time to spare.

_'Right! Time to explore!' _He thought to himself with a newfound spring to his step.

Izuku walked alongside the forest entrance and quickly hopped off the beaten path. He had already been through here once before with Katsuki's squad, but never once ventured past this particular rock formation nearby a small river, where Katsuki had accidentally fallen into on during their first visit. Keeping that in mind, Izuku was filled with new determination and approached the formation as a vantage point. Slowly, but surely, he climbed across the rock formation, careful not to repeat Katsuki's mistake by falling off, or worse, cutting himself from the jagged edges of the rock wall.

_"Ahhh…!"_

Just as he got to the top of the rock formation, he swore he heard a noise that made him jump.

_'A scream?'_

He thought to himself, going silent as his ears perked up. He didn't hear anything at first, so he closed his eyes and even held his breath just to make sure he wasn't just hearing himself.

At last he heard it; someone was crying nearby from the sounds of it. Armed with that knowledge, Izuku jumped off the formation and abandoned his plans for a new patrol route to the wind, as those cries could be that of someone who was hurt or lost.

Someone who might need his began heading toward the source of the sobs, and judging from the direction, Izuku had a solid idea on what could have happened. He moved slowly through the bushes knowing the river was nearby. If one was not careful here, they could easily fall in by walking through the taller bushes that blocked view of the small river. Izuku found the edge where the mouth of the river formed, and began to scan up and down the shallow riverside until he spotted the source of the cries.

_'Bingo!'_

A small child like himself had indeed fallen in, just like he had suspected. Izuku climbed down feet-first into the river bed, careful to avoid the rocks and fallen branches that plagued the downward path. Once at the bottom, he began his way up to the crying child. As he got closer he realized it was a girl, just around his age.

Suddenly, Izuku's determination fizzled and he suddenly became very nervous. He was naturally a shy child, but when it came to girls? It always seemed to only compound on his nerves. It was Katsuki who always good with talking to others, including girls provided they didn't annoy or anger him.

Izuku, however, wouldn't allow his nerves to get the better of him here; not when she was in need of help. After all how could Izuku ever hope to be a great hero if he couldn't talk to a single girl?

Izuku slowly approached and he nervously offered his -_albeit shaky_ hand to her.

"H-h-hi, a-a-re you a-alright? Are you h-hurt?" Izuku stuttered, his nervous voice cracking.

The girl slowly looked up at him, making his face heat up. She was very pretty for a girl, chest-nut brown hair in a bob-cut with two bangs of hair slightly longer, and chocolate brown eyes and a light blush on her round cheeks. She wore a white dress with pink accents, which was drenched wet and stained with mud from the river bed.

Her eyes were red and puffy with fresh tears still running down her cheeks, she finally nodded and spoke up.

"I-I-I got lo-lo-lost and fell," she stuttered as well, mixed in with her sobs. "I-I hurt m-my leg." She motioned to her right leg with splattering of bruises, ranging from light to a rather dark one in the middle that bled a little. Seeing her in pain only made him grow more determined to help, as he began to feel a strange warm sensation in his chest. His hand stopped shaking, and got a bit closer to the young girl.

"Can I help you?" Izuku asked calmly, finding the courage to best replicate his idol's trademark heroic smile.

The girl finally seemed to be able to stop crying and even managed giggle a bit when she saw his face. She went to reach for his hand firmly holding it, her pinkie finger extended outward to prevent her quirk from activating by accident.

_'Soft…!'_

Izuku slowly puller her up to her feet, up until the weight of her injured, bruised leg caused her to fall forward.

"Ah…!"

He quickly grabbed onto her and held her up firmly to stop her from falling back onto the ground, incidentally pulling her into a tight hug. His newfound determination came as quickly as it went, as he was completely _not_ ready for this amount of unexpected physical contact from a girl. He became overwhelmed with embarrassment at the idea of being considered so rude, his face glowing redder than before.

"I'm sorry…" She quietly apologized. That alone was enough to snap himself out of embarrassment.

"It's okay! Hey…do you have a quirk?" He asked, mentally berating himself for not asking her earlier. She could've had a quirk that could help them out their current situation. And maybe, her quirk could be among the first new entries of his _'Hero Analysis for the Future!'_ notebooks that he recently started while he waited for his quirk to finally manifest.

"I do. It's called Zero Gravity: I can make things lighter when I touch them all five of my fingers," she answered back, her mood seemed to improve as she showed Izuku the tiny pink bumps on her small hands.

_'Too cute…!'_

"That's amazing!" Izuku caught the girl by surprise, since no one else but her parents had ever reacted to her quirk like that.

He then asked, "Can you make yourself lighter?"

* * *

At that very moment, unknown to Izuku, his father Hisashi Midoriya had felt a chill run down his spine while he was eating lunch with a few of his sidekicks. He felt a strange wave of unchivalrous guilt for a brief moment, as he looked around nervously with a mouth full of ramen noodles hanging from his mouth.

* * *

"I can, but… it makes feel sick after a while. But if it helps, I can do it," she mumbled, dreading the nausea that it came with, finally she in turned then asked Izuku, "What about you? Do you have quirk?"

"I do, but I don't know what it is yet..."

"Yet?"

"Yeah. The doctor told me and my mom that I have a quirk from the tests and stuff they did on me. But they're just not sure what it is, or how it works yet."

"And don't worry about using your quirk," he continued reassuring her, "I don't want you to feel sick!"

Izuku was quickly getting more and more frustrated with himself, caught in a predicament. Not knowing what else to do, he slowly turned body around and squatted down, offering the injured girl to be carried on his back. She was caught off-guard, but soon realized what he was doing and climbed on, circling her arms around his neck without protest. She relax and cradled her head on his back.

He slowly stood up and began his trek towards the rock wall with the intention of climbing back up all while carrying her on his back. However, Izuku soon realized just how difficult, to near impossible such an action was going to be as he needed to use both hands to climb _and_ hold onto the girl on his back.

His growing frustration only worsened, as he found himself silently wishing for his father's quirk to just appear and making him strong enough to simply jump over the rock edge without the need of climbing up. Even if he had his mother's quirk – a mild form of telekinesis – he would be able to help get her out of the river without the need of her climbing the wall herself.

Instead, he was stuck below, basically quirkless and unable to do much of anything. Of course he didn't want to leave the injured girl all alone while he went ahead to get help. But he also didn't want her to become sick by activating her gravity quirk either. The feeling in his chest was soon getting heavier as he stewed in his frustration.

_'Come on, Izuku!' _He berated to himself as he stood by the edge of the riverbed, _'She needs your help!'_

It was proving both frustrating and disheartening to him how such a normally easy task of climbing out of the river was now proving impossible in his current state. After all, there was only so much physical strength Izuku had as a five-year-old child, on top of carrying another around the same age and weight.

"You can leave me to get help..." The girl said upon seeing his face expressing his internal strife. "I don't mind…"

"No!" Izuku stubbornly said, "I'm not doing that!"

"It's ok!" She cried out. Truthfully, she was happy that a stranger cared enough to help her out, but it didn't stop the guilt of seeing him frustrated and helpless in trying to do the right thing.

Izuku was just about to give up when he realized something was off. That feeling that was burning in his chest… it was different. It was warm and gentle, but had a real, solid weight to it. Izuku felt it wash over him as he closed his eyes.

"Wait!" The girl exclaimed in surprise, "what's going on?!"

Izuku's eyes quickly snapped open. His whole body glowed, the bright light spreading a warm sensation throughout his body like a fire. Then, without warning, Izuku blacked out. Only fleeting moments of fading in and out remained in his memory.

He felt a breeze in the air. How? Was he flying or did he jump?

He could still feel the weight on his neck? The girl, was she okay?

His body felt nearly weightless as if he were free falling from beyond the clouds. Was he dying?

_"Izuku…!"_

_'Mom?'_

_'"Thank you. My Knight,"_ he heard the girl's voice say before feeling something soft upon his cheek.

_'Knight?'_

And finally there was complete silence.

* * *

To say Inko was simply worried was an understatement for what she had witnessed a few hours ago. She was sure it wasn't as bad as it seems, but Izuku falling unconscious was what set off her alarm bells. While riding with the ambulance, she had called her husband's agency to let him know what was going on. Thankfully, young Ryuko picked up her call and let her now that Hisashi was on his way to the hospital.

Once they arrived at the emergency room, Izuku was settled in his own room and the hospital staff began running a few medical tests. It was when Izuku was safely ushered away did Inko finally allowed herself to breathe.

"Honey!" She heard her husband's voice from behind. She turned to see Hisashi Midoriya in his makeshift civilian attire. A very worn-out, poorly ironed white dress shirt and a hastily made black tie, black slacks and unpolished brown dress shoes Inko swore belonged to one of Hisashi's sidekicks.

His messy, thick mop of black wavy hair was all over the place and nearly covered his bright, golden eyes. A light shadow of stubble showing was proof that Hisashi clearly rushed out onto the scene. But he was here, and that was all that mattered right now.

"Oh Hisashi!" She cried, embracing the panicked man rather tightly.

"It's okay, Inko…" He gripped onto her shoulders. "Now...what's going on exactly? Ryuko kind of skimmed on the details."

"I think Izuku finally got his quirk, but…after he used it, he fell unconscious…"

"What was it?" Hisashi asked, his eyes wide hoping it was their current circumstances, Hisashi hoped it was his, as it would quickly explain why Izuku blacked out so abruptly.

"It's yours, honey," she finally answered. "It looks a little different thanks to his hair, but it was indefinitely Dragon Shift, dear."

_"Yes!"_ Hisashi yelled out, thrilled that his son got his quirk. A mountain of ideas for the near future was already forming in his head.

"Honey! Shush!" She whispered loudly at him, looking around the room. "We're in a hospital!"

The hospital staff paused for a moment, looking at Hisashi as if he was crazy. After a quick apology, he resumed his conversation with Inko.

"I'm sorry honey, but trust me: if this is the case, then I already know what happened. If it really was Izuku using Dragon Shift, then he most likely just wasn't ready for it, and it just drained all his stamina," Hisashi explained. "Now…was he fully armored or only partially armored?"

_"Hisashi!"_

"What?!"

"Are you sure… that he's going to be alright?"

"Yep! I mean you should have seen what happened to me the first time. I was out for_ two days! _Ha ha ha —ow!"

Inko smacked the backside of her husband's head.

"How could you be so casual about it?!" Inko voiced her frustrations at her husband's antics.

"Because I lived through it; powerful quirks tend to do stuff like that. Seriously, can you only imagine what life was like for someone like All Might when he was kid? With that insane amount of power?"

Inko sighed, but smiled. _'Ever the fanboy, right Hisashi?' _

"Hello umm...Mister and Missus Midoriya?" Voice called out causing Inko and Hisashi to turn to the person in question. A young nurse with cat ears wearing a set of light-blue hospital scrubs waved at them.

"Your son is awake now. Doctor Nishi said everything looked normal, and that the most likely culprit was just exhaustion. After some food and rest, he should be good to go. I'll go ahead and get the paperwork started for you to fill out, so we should be able to discharge him today if you'd like."

"Thank you very much," Inko and Hisashi said together as they both bowed; relieved at the update.

As the couple entered into the room, they could see Izuku on the bed with small hospital tablet in his hands, most likely spying the latest hero news updates. Hearing the door he looked up, and smiled upon seeing his parents.

"Mom! Dad!" He called out as his parents took the seats next to his bedside.

"My boy, you feelin' better?" Hisashi asked hoping that doctor or the staff hadn't broken news about his quirk yet.

"Yeah, I am, but... Mom?"

His mother, who finally was able to relax after seeing him safe and responsive, tensed up when the look of worry flickered on his face.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Is that girl okay?"

Hisashi couldn't help but grin, proud of his son's selfless nature. Ryuko had briefly mentioned that Izuku was carrying a young, injured girl when they had found him.

"Oh! Yes, of course sweetie, she's going to be alright," Inko said with a smile that allowed Izuku to relax. "You remember the lady I was speaking with before lunch? That was her mother, Tenma. Her daughter just got checked out from here earlier, she's completely fine once she got her wounds cleaned up and bandaged. In fact, I think they left to get her some mochi…"

Seeing the opportunity at hand, Hisashi took this chance to break the news.

"Soooo... Izuku!" He resisted the urge to grin even wider. "It looks like we finally found out what your quirk is!"

Izuku shot right back up eyes beaming and alert.

"REALLY!? WHAT IS IT?!" He exclaimed with excitement, almost bouncing up and down on his bed.

Hisashi knew how long Izuku had waited to hear this, but he wanted to make him wait just a little longer.

"Oh, I don't know... I'm not one-hundred percent sure, but I believe _your mother does_," Hisashi teased putting Inko on the spot.

Izuku's head snapped to his mother at a speed that spooked both his parents; making them sweat a little. After a brief moment, Inko cleared her throat and then finally answered.

"For the short time I was able to see it in use, and could finally stop panicking, I can say it was definitely Dragon Shift, you are your father's son after all Izuku." She smiled as she saw her son's face glow with happiness. She was secretly a bit disappointed it wasn't her quirk he inherited, but more than happy for her son nevertheless, especially since she knew how much Izuku wanted to a Pro-Hero like his father and their idol All Might. For his dream to be a hero, Dragon Shift would serve him far better than her telekinesis.

And with that, Hisashi broke out his biggest smile as he hugged his son, overjoyed at the news that he had finally gotten his quirk.

Izuku, in turn, was extremely excited as well, knowing how cool his father's "Armored" form was. But then, he suddenly realized something was off.

"But why can't I remember anything?" Izuku asked sadly. Disappointed he couldn't remember such an important moment in his life.

"Ah! That is an easy one to explain, son. You just weren't ready for it yet. Heck, _I_ could barely remember my first time shifting into my armor, and that was by accident. I wound up asleep for two days afterward, so it's safe to say you're doing a whole a lot better than me!"

Hisashi laughed scratching the back of his head, now fondly remembering his childhood; a rarity for Hisashi. At least this did made Izuku feel much better about his situation, it was comforting to know that he wasn't alone in the experience.

His father continued to explain some of the basics of their shared quirk. "As you get older and practice with your quirk, you'll build up your energy and stamina. And if you want, we can start training together, just like I always promised."

Izuku was blown away has he absorbed his father's words, finally training! His plans to get into UA can finally move forward! Seeing the pure joy on his son's face, Hisashi knew his answer, but asked anyway,

"So… I'll take that as a yes?"

"YES!" Izuku answered with glee without a moment of hesitation.

"Very well, Izuku! Then from here on out, you are now my page in training," Hisashi went fourth the motion of an accolade with his hands, 'knighting' Izuku on his shoulders; "when I think you're ready for UA, I'll deem you worthy to be called my squire. And finally, once you graduate, I'll deem you worthy as a knight proper."

Hisashi had dreamt of this moment for ages, ever since he learned that Inko was pregnant with Izuku years ago. The inner nerd in him that had a small passion for Middle Ages European history, straying not far from his own hero name; Draco Knight.

Inko covered mouth as she tried to stifle a giggle, "I think you may be a bit late for that, Hisashi."

"Eh?"

Inko began to gush as she recounted what had happened.

"The young girl Izuku was helping –_oh Hisashi! You should've seen it! _The way they held onto each other. When she explained what had happened, she finished with a _'He shined and turned into my Knight to help me.'"_

Izuku instantly began blushing hard, he hadn't been ready to hear that part of her story. But it did make him feel happy, like a real hero.

_**Her Knight.**_

Hisashi at first, had a mild look of disappointment on his face before breaking into a smile that was even bigger than before, and gave way to a hearty laugh.

"Damn! Knighted by a princess already!? You couldn't wait for your old man, could ya' Izuku? Hahaha!" He said, a faux expression of feeling hurt plastered on his face.

"That is adorable. Did you get her name?" He finally finished facing Inko.

"I believe…Ochako? I was speaking with her mother Tenma**... Tenma Uraraka, I believe it was? I do know she's from out of town, and was only here with her husband on a local business trip."

She sighed happily, "It's a cute name, isn't it? Ochako, the little Tea Girl."

Hisashi pondered for a moment upon hearing that familiar name.

_"Uraraka?"_

It took a moment until Hisashi remember the familiarity of the name.

"Ah... I wonder if she's related to Kenji?"**

Kenji Uraraka was one of the various Damage Assessment Mangers -_otherwise known as DAMs_ among Pro-Heroes. A tough, but fair man, Kenji had helped get Hisashi out of a jam from paying damages after one particularly nasty fight with a villain. It was because of this that saved Hisashi's record during the next review phase of the semester, and secured his placement as Rank Sixteen up from Rank Twenty-One.

"I think I still owe him a drink," Hisashi added with laughed as he remembered the kind hearted man.

"Izuku, since you did such a good job today... how about when we get home, I make your favorite?" Inko asked in a singsong voice.

Oh boy! As if today couldn't get any better for Izuku. First, he finally gotten his quirk, and that was awesome. Next, he got to save a pretty girl like a real hero, and she even called him _Her Knight. _And now, he was getting to eat Katsudon made by his mother.

The only thing that could have made today even better was if he got to personally meet All Might, who would then offer a sidekick position exclusively just for him.

Yes, that would be an absolute perfect day for Izuku.

Instead, he simply settled for what he got today. Knighthood and a clear path to becoming a Pro-Hero.

* * *

**Author's Commentary**  
**  
Labyrinth of the World Trees: The Knights of Fafnir**.*

This is the translated title for Etrian Odyssey in Japan.  
**世界樹の迷宮** Or _Sekaiju no Meikyū _  
Labyrinth of The World Tree  
In the case of this "Story book" The title would be  
**世界樹の迷宮ファフニールの騎士** Or _Sekaiju no Meikyū Fafuniiru no Kishi_

Tenma & Kenji**

So if you remember from the original story. I named Ochako's parents based on my favorite ship from the  
Anime/Manga series: School Rumble (still a favorite to watch and read) Tenma's English VA also voices Ochako in the English Dub of MHA, While Kenji's Eng VA voices Gunhead in MHA, so it was just a tiny dash of love to one of my favorite sunken ships ever.

Additional Notes:  
For new readers, this was the original **C****_hapter I _**from the old version with a couple of tweaks and a replaced scene that works better here.

It's original title was_** Izuku Midoriya: Origin**_, however I decided to rename it to _**The Knight**_ for obvious reasons and found it to be much more fitting.

This is also the chapter, I had to edit the most of out when it first started to make a long story short. When I first started this story, I used a super bare-bones _-second draft I believe?_ To test out the formatting.

When I was ready to post...I used the wrong file and placed the bare bones version. Good lord how I scrambled to fix it after I discovered that terrible mistake with the proper version and even then it would good under a few revisions.

Finally, next chapter is an all new original.

The title of the new _**Chapter III: Halcyon Days**_  
I hope you look forward to it.


	3. Halcyon Days

Hello my dear readers! Sorry for the rather long update, but good news_** Chapter IV**_ will be up within the next two days. (I promise)  
My basic plan is that every upload batch contains at least one of the brand new original chapters not found in the old version.

So I want to address a few very quick things for new readers and old readers who still may be unsure of a few things.

**One:** Izuku will not be OP (He will be stronger than canon, but I made sure to balance him out) Izuku may become OP near the endgame of the story, but that will not be for a _very _long time. Some of my older readers will already now about one very critical backlash of Izuku's quirk that is hinted at here and in the next chapter.

**Two:**Izuku is not the only one getting a modification to their quirk. Most characters including minor ones will be getting some upgrades to their quirks (within reason) to keep them from being made redundant and all characters including those 1-A and 1-B plus canon supporting cast will be expanded upon in this story. (So if you want some class B love, you're getting it)

**Three:** Since Etrian Odyssey is a very niche game, you **DO NOT**, repeat _**DO NOT**_ need to know anything about Etrian Odyssey to follow the story. Any elements or references will mostly be Easter eggs for readers familiar with both (Yin, I know you're having fun with it) and will leave it open for readers to follow. So have no fear about following the story if you haven't played the game. Anything plot related will be addressed in due time.

* * *

**Reviews!**

_**AZNMAGICIAN & inFamousSlyMonkey**_: These comments hurt to read. I wish I could do what you suggested, but I can't.

_**Renlu**__:_ Glad you where happy with the quick update. And I would agree but we are missing a third cinnamon roll, that I would argue is cuter than both.

_**Alphaminer64**_: I guess it really is, but so far only Sremiehzla has followed and acknowledged me. (And Dewyn too, to an extent)

_**AriesNoChuy**__:_I'm very flattered to hear that, especially with being here for 18 years! I do enjoy this project, and restarting felt like the only way to do it properly. I don't have regrets.

_**Ooobserver**_:If you have 3DS and like Dungeon crawler RPG's then go for it! I'm very happy that many seem to being enjoying even the small touches to the text. (You can thank my Beta reader for that, her work really helped me flesh out the small details)

_**moonstar31548**__:_ Happy to see you back, and I can't go into detail for spoilers, but I'm glad you enjoyed them meeting up once again for the first time.

_**D3lph0xL0v3r**__:_Thanks I'm doing my best. I'm hoping that you will enjoy the updates and new chapters.

_**GregtheGuest**__:_ Nice, Devil Trigger is a solid track. I am getting much more comfortable with writing so that is a plus.

_**Yin**__**Furtive: **_Meaty comments my favorite! Haha! I'm glad you enjoyed the updated works and the references I left and Yes that was Bakugou and the Baku squad along with Tsuyu, Fumikage and Yuga among them, glad someone is paying attention. And no "Betting it All" Is awesome and you know that.

_**Sremiehzla**_: A slow burn is a good burn.

_**JF7: **_I'm glad you like that gag with Hisashi and _**Chapter I**_ should be confusing, I would be worried if it wasn't. Answers will come in due time.

* * *

**Recommendation**

Today I want to recommend a classic!

**_Sex Ed by AnimeFan299110_**

Which is a wonderfully made One-shot that is funny as hell. It features Midnight teaching Class 1-A about the birds and the bees and I'll just leave it as that.  
Available to read on FF, AO3 and Wattpad.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight_**

**_Saga I: Dusk_**

**_Arc I: Origins_**

**_Chapter III: Halcyon Days_**

* * *

_**"Remember to turn: Sadness into Joy. Hard times into good times. Struggles into accomplishments. Obstacles into opportunity." **_  
**― Hopal Green**

* * *

"Oh, that is wonderful to hear, Urashima!" Inko said while speaking on the phone and checking her emails. "Yes, I'm very happy to hear that you found a good team to continue with your research."

She continued to click away on her computer. "I know, we do miss you here too, but your work could really come in handy to save lives in the future! Provided that your theory is correct. No! No, we were more than happy to provide you with the startup cash! After all you did for us during your time here, you know Hisashi was more than happy to help you out with it."

As she listened along to her former employee, Inko received an email confirming the shipment arrival for one of their pet projects. She smiled, knowing that Hisashi had been looking forward to this news.

"I see," she answered on the phone; "hey Urashima, I'm sorry but I have to go. It was great speaking with you. Please give us an update when you can... Right... Yes... You have a great day too." Inko finished before hanging up the phone.

"Oh, that was a good report. I'll have one of the girls write that up from the notes Urashima left us," she began to say to herself, drawing up a few quick notes in her daily planner. "The tech he's been developing is really something else."

She was about to ring up the gym phone to let Hisashi know about the delivery when a familiar sound was heard.

**THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!**

"Oh dear..." Inko said to herself hearing those familiar footsteps as a giant of man with the appearance of a killer whale walked into her office space. He stood for a brief moment, his red eyes scanning the office like those of a gecko searching, before looking straight ahead and finally bowing to Inko.

"Midoriya," He said gently.

"Sakamata," Inko said with a nervous laugh. "How are you?"

"Your husband, where is he right now?" He asked gently.

"Ummm… Hisashi should be on the fifth floor gym training."

The giant whale man hummed in response with a shadow of a grin forming on his face as he bowed again to Inko.

"Oh good, now we can begin round ninety-seven without delay," he answered with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Inko could feel the sweat on her brow collect. Since their days at UA, the infamous rivalry between Gang Orca and Draco Knight was legendary, especially among those who been within the same year group in UA with them growing up.

"Would you like something to drink, Sakamata?" She asked sweetly hoping to try and delay the whale man.

"No, thank you, Midoriya. Now if would you please excuse me, I have business to attend to with your husband," He said, before turning around and suddenly began sprinting to the fifth floor, screaming obscenities and challenges to the Dragon Hero.

Inko sighed as she grabbed her phone and dialed the gym.

"Well, better start with the delivery news first."

* * *

"And STRIKE!" Hisashi barked out suddenly getting into a guarding position, as his two young protegees charged at him again with a renewed vigor. His son Izuku attempted to flank his left side quirk active to give him a power boost, while his second apprentice, his son's best friend Katsuki Bakugou or _**"Boom Boy"**_ attacked on the opposite side. Hisashi felt like being cheeky, and charged forward leaning slightly from the right side; pincer move.

Hisashi grinned at the sight of the boys getting better every day. They had already been at this for a couple hours, but this was a big step in how they both cooperated and worked together.

It was a tight call, as Hisashi managed to block his son's strike and narrowly dodge Katsuki's blast. However, one thing he didn't expect was Izuku's sudden ingenuity. Izuku, in the span of a couple seconds, managed to shift back to normal and then shift back into his armor with a flash strong enough to blind Hisashi for just a handful of seconds. Upon letting go of his son, Katsuki doubled backed and used one explosion to propel himself and another to blast his master away.

"And pause!" Hisashi called out from the smoke of the blast to the two boys, who were panting heavily. A mild smell of burnt cinnamon wafting through the air; a minor side effect of Katsuki's quirk. Hisashi held himself still to avoid showing the pain he was currently in. It had been a good strike and Katsuki had managed to hit one of Hisashi's old scars that was hidden under his shirt, causing more pain than normal.

"Okay, that was really good boys!" Hisashi finally said while he gave both boys a light clap of his hands. "You pulled that last move effectively!"

The two boys grinned before giving each other a high five.

"Alright boys, hit the showers!" He added, "we're done for today."

"Aw come on, Uncle! We can go another round!" Katsuki boasted despite being out of breath, all while Izuku seemed more willing to listen.

"We did lot already, Kacchan! Besides, my mom said she has a surprise for us when we're done!"

Katsuki click his tongue impatiently, so Hisashi had another plan to get Katsuki to cooperate.

"I think Ryukyu should be back from her patrol in the next ten minutes or so…" He said almost as an afterthought, "I know she isn't very fond of sweaty or smelly people especially with that nose of hers."

"Izuku! Let's go!" Katsuki suddenly snapped once he processed what his master had said, turning his heel and grabbing his friend to head toward the agency's male locker rooms; Hisashi chucking to himself. The explosive boy was young, but he had quickly grown to crush on his lead sidekick and cousin Ryuko Tatsuma, or better known by as the Dragoon Hero: Ryukyu.

He could still feel the sting of Katsuki's blast that rattled the burn scars that marked much of his lower torso. He couldn't help but laugh to himself. Ever since Izuku got his quirk a few years ago, they had been training whenever Hisashi had free time just like he promised. Which proved to be quite often enough when you have very a solid team of sidekicks. Whenever they began their training, both of them often wore loose fitting basketball shorts and sleeveless shirts.

The first step was for Izuku to learn to gain a basic control of his quirk by using simple drills of shifting each his limbs one at a time. Hisashi drilled this in him for hours, then continued on for days which then became weeks, up until it finally became second nature for Izuku.

The second step in his training was honing basic use of his quirk: running, jumping and climbing with the quirk active, and then slowly building up his stamina with each coming day while doing these actions.

When Izuku would often ask if they could also do simple, rigorous workouts using gym equipment, Hisashi refused, countering that at Izuku's current young age, rapid muscle growth would cause more harm than good. He did promise they would start on proper body conditioning when he got older. In the meantime, Hisashi simply trained Izuku with basic martial arts to keep him in a base state of fitness, up until he reached an age where he was old enough for proper workouts.

Izuku had barely allowed himself any free time for his friends, not that he had many to begin with. So it was just him often just him alone, at least up until his best friend Katsuki Bakugou, or more affectionately named 'Kacchan,' came by for a visit. Soon enough Katsuki himself would join them in training building both their friendship and skills. Only recently had they built themselves up enough to begin sparring with their quirks, and today's sparring session truly showed their results. Hisashi couldn't be prouder of his apprentices.

He was about to leave the gym when one of the mounted phones rang in the gym wall. It was most likely an internal call from someone else in the agency, as Hisashi walked up and answered hoping it wouldn't be an emergency call.

"Hisashi here."

_"Ah honey! Are you all done with training?"_ Inko's calm, homely voice made Hisashi relax.

"Yeah. I was just about to hit the showers to freshen up a bit, and looks like the boys went a head of me." He answered with a laugh, his mood improving and his thoughts turned happier.

_"Oh good, I do have an update! The new project has arrived on schedule and is being sent to my office. And I know how much you wanted to personally give Izuku and Katsuki their gifts."_

Hisashi grew excited, the project for his fan club was finally ready to be unveiled!

"So they're here?!" He said struggling to keep himself from nerding out.

_"All twenty-one, custom made just like you wanted."_

"I'll be down in a few minutes!" Hisashi exclaimed as he moved to hang up the phone.

_"Oh wait honey! Sakama –" _her voice cutting off as he replaced the phone on the wall.

"Oh... Oh crap..." Hisashi said to himself, feeling a bit guilty of hanging up on his wife so abruptly before she could finish, but then shrugged it off. "Well, couldn't have been anything important."

* * *

Inko sighed at her desk, a small look of amusement in her face.

_'Oh well, I guess karma will get Hisashi for that,'_ she thought to herself with a tiny giggle to herself; knowing full well that their guest was on his way to Hisashi's location when she realized something else.

"Oh...!" She suddenly remembered before getting her phone again, "I should probably have a few repairmen on standby knowing those two." She was about to start her next call on her phone, when it suddenly began to ring.

"Inko here," She answered, taking note that the incoming call was from the reception office.

_"Ah, boss! Umm... the Chief of Police is here."_

Inko's face scrunched up a bit as to figure out for what reason the Chief would be here. That is, until she quickly remembered some paperwork that Hisashi needed to finish up.

"Which Chief?" She asked, hoping it wasn't who she thought it was.

_"Chief Doumeki, ma'am."_

"Oh... no, that could get awkward," she said nervously, "please tell him that we will be there soon."

_"Aye aye, boss."_

Inko got up as she hung up the phone, as Ryuko entered her office; returning back from her patrol.

"Ah man, that was a good walk! Hey Inko, I saw we finally got the stuff for the boys..." She paused when she saw the look Inko's face, "oh, what's wrong...Did someone die?"

"Ryuko, could you please go get Hisashi please? I would ring him up again, but Sakamata is here."

"Ooohhh, what round is this now?" She asked with a smirk growing on her face. "Ninety-Six?"

"Ninety-Seven," She corrected her cousin-in-law; "and could you be quick about it, please? If you don't mind?"

"I don't know, you know how they can get."

"Chief Doumeki is here."

"Oh…!" Ryuko's eyes widened, realizing what that meant and began gunning it to the gym. "I'M ON IT!"

Inko let out a long sigh. She hoped it would be a quick visit to make sure Hisashi would remain in a good mood.

* * *

Hisashi walked down the hall with the biggest grin on his face, naïve to the looming threat that awaited him until he heard that familiar unmistakable sound...footsteps.

**THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!**

**Those**_ Very_** familiar footsteps. **Hisashi's smile faded from his face, making an expression that was somewhere between dread, annoyance and even some amusement.

"Sakamata..." He said to himself.

Finally he heard that familiar roar had been cut off at the beginning.

_"– SEIIIIII!"_ At the corner of the hall appeared a giant of a man with the appearance of a Killer Whale who suddenly charged at him.

"AH FU—FIND ME IN THE ALPS!" Hisashi shrieked out before turning around and running back to the gym.

Gang Orca versus Draco Knight, round ninety-seven was now about to begin.

Hisashi was still tired from his training and knew that is longtime rival would have the edge. He barely made it to the center of his gym before turning around and getting clotheslined by the whale-man.

* * *

Ryuko was making her away to the gym as quickly as possible. She knew that a good way to ruin Hisashi's day was mentioning Chief Doumeki ever since the incident six years ago. No one really knew what had happened that night, not even Inko knew all of the details. All they knew was the mission went horribly wrong and Hisashi was in the hospital for nearly two months. After all of that, the two men seldom spoke to each other, and the times they do were often only for professional purposes.

Ryuko was almost at the gym when she could hear Hisashi and Gang Orca's fight from down the hall.

**"YOU HAVE GOTTEN WEAK!"**

**"BITE ME, BLOWHOLE!"**

**CRASH!**

**"HAHAHA!"**

**"YOU ARE SO GOING TO PAY FOR THAT, DAMN IT!"**

As she slowed down, she spotted her two favorite boys, whose both their attention was also focused on the ruckus down the hall.

"Izu, Kacchan!" Ryuko smiled sweetly to her cousin and his friend.

Both boys in turned look at her, Izuku with a bright smile on his face and Katsuki immediately facing away from the Dragoon hero with a dash of red growing on his face.

"Everything okay?" She asked before suddenly hearing a very loud _**SLAM!**_

"Is dad going to be okay?" Izuku asked nervously. Katsuki, on the other hand, chose not to say much as the blond was trying to avoid himself from stuttering in front of his crush.

"Oh yeah, he's just sparring with his good friend!"

"**YOU SON OF BITCH!"**

Ryuko laughed nervously. "A _very_ good friend."

**"GODDAMN IT! I WILL EAT YOU FOR LUNCH! I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY WHALEMEAT!"**

**CRASH!**

**SNAP!**

"Say Izu! Why don't you and Kacchan head down to your mom's office? I'll go get your dad so he and your mom can get started for your surprise she mentioned earlier, okay?" She chirped, fully ignoring the roars, swears and fighting from the two pros. Izuku and Katsuki both seemed to hesitate, but eventually decided to listen to the Dragoon Hero and headed down to Inko's office on the second floor.

"Phew…"

And with that she stood back straight up and headed toward the gym once again. She arrived just in time to see Hisashi performing a German suplex on the whale-man.

**"AND THE NAME IS MIDORIYA NOW!" **Hisashi roared out.

**SLAM!**

The loud slap of Gang Orca's back against the mat of the gym rang out. The whale-man groaned in defeat with Hisashi quickly getting up with arms raised in victory; face left swelling and bruised.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Round ninety-seven is mine! That makes it fifty-two to forty-five, ya prick!" Hisashi laughed out to his defeated foe, before adding; "and you're still paying for the damages!"

"Ahem!" Ryuko cleared her throat to get her cousin's attention.

"OH!" Hisashi actually hopped to the side; startled. After a moment he simply stood there nervously upon seeing that his cousin eyeing him in frustration. "Ryuko, you're back from patrol! Oh good! We can get started wit –"

"I'm sorry Hisashi," Ryuko interrupted with a raised hand;"but there is something more important that's come up."

Hisashi frowned. "What do you mean?"

Ryuko bit her lip before saying. "Chief Doumeki is here, for that report that was due two days ago."

The mood in the room changed almost instantly, Hisashi's face went from nervous almost turned stone cold with what could only be described as a mask of shame.

Only the light groans and breathing of the unconscious Gang Orca filled the silence that deafened the room.

"How long has he been waiting?" Hisashi asked finally breaking the heavy silence in a flat tone.

"I'm not sure, but it couldn't be longer than ten minutes."

"Shit..." Hisashi muttered quietly before firmly looking at his cousin right in the eye. "I'm going to head straight down to go see him. Call Inko and tell her to have Kenichi to have the report on hand on the first floor, I'll grab it and deliver it personally."

Hisashi rarely ever yelled out of anger towards anyone that wasn't a villain or a sparring partner. However, just because he didn't yell didn't mean the firm voice he was using now left any room for arguments, a fact Ryuko knew all too well.

"I'll get started right now." She answered with a nod and walked toward the gym's phone.

Hisashi sighed one last time, before grabbing a spare towel from a side rack and started walking toward the door in dread. His legs feeling like lead as he dragged himself down the hall with an equally heavy heart full of guilt.

"I still need to apologize to him..." He felt a new sting from both his scars and of memories he would rather leave behind.

* * *

Izuku and Katsuki were now in the cafeteria of _The Drake's Den _agency. They had been sent there by Inko after their run-in with Ryuko. The two boys sat on one of the tables, eating snacks and messing around with their phones. It was Katsuki who loved to prank Izuku every chance he could and found triggering his friend's quirk hilarious, as was quickly working his way to find an opening to surprise Izuku.

With that, Katsuki had found the perfect jump scare video, and now he just needed to trick Izuku into watching it.

"Hey Kacchan?" He heard Izuku say.

"Yeah?"

"What do you think the surprise is?"

"I dunno, but I know Auntie looked pretty happy about it."

Izuku hummed before turning his attention to the TV, where there was recent news update about a gathering of H.U.C. otherwise known as The Help Us Company, and the Heroic Licensing Body.

_**"Reports the of recent gains of the Neocon movement..."**_

Katsuki, however, wasn't watching the report. Instead, his focus was on pranking his friend, and he just gotten the idea as he remembered some of the features the TV had. He quickly synced his phone to the TV, having done it weeks earlier to watch a movie on the big screen; streaming from his phone. Now it would serve him again for much more mischievous reasons.

_**"The committee is proposing to introduce possible restrictions to..."**_

_'Just a bit more,'_ Katsuki thought as pulled up the new jump scare video on his phone. Now he just needed to wait for the moment for Izuku to be distracted to strike.

_**"However, it seems with the lack of votes in the Lower House of The Diet, the committee..."**_

Katsuki was just about to tap his friend on the shoulder with a wicked grin plastered on his face when Hisashi, Inko and Ryuko entered the cafeteria. Hisashi headed straight toward the refrigerator to grab a drink, his face still a bit hardened from the quick meeting with the Chief, while Inko walked over and addressed the two boys.

"I'm sorry for the wait, boys," Inko said with an apologetic tone. "We had to take care of something quick."

_'I'll say...' _Ryuko thought to herself with a grimace.

Hisashi finished his drink in silence. The meeting wasn't that bad, but between his shame preventing him to apologize once again to his former friend and the fact that the man just would not display any emotion during their whole interaction was just mind numbing. He almost wished the man would yell and scream at him, if just to break through the ice of the past.

Katsuki was unable to read the mood of the room, but took the time, nonetheless, to make the switch now that Izuku was distracted by his parents and cousin. He queued the video up to the TV and saw the report suddenly cut off, with a blank black screen replace the picture.

_**"It is unlikely that the movement to gain any more traction, unless –"**_

The sudden cut of the news broadcast, replaced with a dark screen made everyone in the room to turn to the television.

"Oh, did the cable signal cut off?" Inko asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It could've just fried itself, that's the old television from when we changed buildings," Ryuko answered.

Hisashi agreed with his cousin – fearing that maybe the TV had finally broke, given the age of that particular model. It was then that Katsuki, realized that his prank could backfire and moved quickly to undo the video sync. Unfortunately for him, his phone began to lag and once he saw Hisashi walking closer to the TV to inspect it, it was too late.

The TV screen suddenly displayed a shocking, zombie-looking figure producing a high-pitched scream which startled everyone in the mess hall, including a couple of Hisashi's other sidekicks in the room.

**CRASH!**

Hisashi, due to his reaction time and instinct, immediately punched the TV screen straight on. His quirk activated, the bottle of water he had on his other hand was swiftly crushed. Hisashi simply stood there shocked, his eyes wide open; spikes ripping into his own clothes. No one moved a muscle, as they couldn't read Hisashi's mood at the moment. Despite not getting his intended target, Katsuki couldn't help but break the silence by laughing out loud, albeit trying desperately, _and failing_, to suppress it. Slowly, but surely, Katsuki's laughter proved infectious to the point that everyone, even Hisashi, couldn't help but join along.

At last, it was Hisashi himself who broke the ice.

"Well, that was unexpected, but I did teach the boys to strike when their opponent was off their guard!" Hisashi said, wiping a tear from his eye moments later.

Inko went up to her husband whispering into his ear.

"Are you feeling better now honey?"

Hisashi close his eyes for a moment, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Yeah... I guess I just needed a good shock to the system, ya know?"

While the husband and wife quietly spoke about their next course of action both for the surprise and in replacing the newly broken TV, Ryuko took the chance to pounce and hug both boys.

"Good work, boys. You really helped out there."

Izuku was a bit confused but returned the hug, while Katsuki simply broke out into a nervous, red-faced mess.

"But I didn't do anything though, Kyu!" Izuku chirped up, "I think it was just Kacchan trying to scare me again."

"Well then, good job, Kacchan!" Ryuko said before giving Katsuki a kiss on the cheek, which only made him grow into a deeper shade of red.

"Ryuko! Stop that, you're torturing the poor boy!" Hisashi suddenly called out with another hardy laugh as he saw his apprentice face.

Ryuko let go of the two boys with her tongue sticking out.

"Are we go to finally give the boys their surprise?" She finally asked.

Hisashi and Inko both looked at each other and nodded.

"Right let's go to my office," Inko said motioning everyone to follow her. "Everything should be set."

Izuku and Katsuki got up and started to whisper to each other on what their surprise is.

When they arrived the two boys saw a small stack of small wooden boxes, all varying in different sizes.

Hisashi had the two boys stand in the middle of the office, Inko sat by her desk while Ryuko stood by the entrance; leaning against the doorway with her phone out.

"Okay, sorry it took while boys, but after everything, we are finally here!" Hisashi said a light tone, before motioning to Inko.

"Boys, Hisashi and I had been wanting to do something very special for his fan club. And after several meetings, a few phone calls and a few redesigns, we came up with these!" Inko said while she pulled out two boxes; the biggest among the stacks.

She opened both and presented one to each of them. Inside of both was a design of an order of knighthood.*

Izuku's was a large elegantly designed metal badge of Draco Knight's personal emblem; a sword with a dragon wing cross-guard pressed against the shape of a shield. It was gold with silver and black accents, and had a sash and cape with the same color scheme of the emblem. Katsuki's was similar to Izuku's, except slightly less decorative and his cape was only a half-cape. But unlike Izuku's, behind Katsuki's badge was a beautifully carved _**Number One**_.

"What do you think?" Hisashi excitedly waited in anticipation.

"What is it?" Izuku asked confused, an answer that caused Ryuko to burst out laughing.

"It's a medal, right?" Katsuki answered, though still a bit unsure.

Hisashi sighed before answering,

"Well, Katsuki is partly right. You see boys, when someone is knighted, they are induced into an order,and that order could contain multiple 'ranks'** depending the situation and other circumstances. Anyways, the ranks include different types of awards. From a basic medal to the grand crosses you two have now."

Inko got up to show the two boys a few pictures of some people modeling and wearing some of the prototype versions of the medals.

"We plan to host a contest for the fan club, and the top nineteen receive a box with their prize which varies on their ranking," Inko explained in further detail, "But these are going directly to you, and they're both one of kind. Izuku's has no number, but you, Katsuki, get to be ranked first with the Grand Cross."

Katsuki grinned widely at his medal. While he admitted in being a bigger All Might fan, he was still a huge fan of his master, who went out of his way to personally train him. His son being his biggest fan was to be expected, so clearly Katsuki accepted this without issue.

"Why doesn't mind have a number?" Izuku sadly asked, his eyes downcast.

Hisashi smiled and patted his son on his head.

"Because yours, Izuku, is the version reserved for the Grandmaster, the head of the order. And maybe once you become a Pro-Hero and maybe even take over _The Drake's Den_, you'll be able to host your own contest and name the next new set of Knights of the order."

Inko smiled, but couldn't help roll her eyes just a bit.

_'He's such a nerd!_' She screamed in her head, before giving her husband a loving gaze. _'But he's my nerd.'_

"Oh!" Ryuko exclaimed as readied her phone's camera mode, "Izu and Kacchan, why don't you try them on?!"

Katsuki feeling himself blush red again.

"N-no! It's cool just like it is!"

"Aww... And here I thought it would look dashing on you~!"

"Damnit..." Katsuki growled out lightly, easily swayed by her request.

Hisashi was losing it again to all the laughter that went throughout the room. As the boys began removing the gear from the boxes to try on. He thoughts turned to his biggest regret of that day.

He had still failed to apologize to his former friend.

Today, he vowed to himself, proved that he would redouble his efforts to prove that he was sincere to make up with his friend and fix their relationship. But it would all be for naught as the following year would prove.

* * *

**Author's commentary **

*Order of Knighthood. Anyone from the commonwealth and few other European countries that still award Knighthoods maybe be more familiar with this.

Examples include

The **Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (U.K.)**

The **Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau (Luxembourg and The Netherlands)**

The **Order of the White Eagle (Poland)**

Just to name a few.

**2. Ranks within the order. With each order can come different levels of awards that come with the rank one is given or promoted too.  
The most common are 3-5 "Ranks" but it can vary from order to order.

**I. Grand Cross**

**II. Grand Officer**

**III. Commander (also can go be known as Knight's Commander.)**

**IV. Knight Officer**

**V. Knight Member**

However even other awards that are not related to Knighthood can feature this.

Examples include

The French **National Order of the Legion of Honor **with Five grades.

The **US Presidential Medal of Freedom** with Two Grades

And a rather Unique US Military awards that is based on the French Legion of Honor

**The Legion of Merit **with four grades (The latter three reserved for foreign troops)

* * *

Anyway guys that is all for now.

**_Chapter IV: Deceptions in the shadows _**will be releasing within the next two days.


	4. Deceptions in the Shadows

As promised here is _**Chapter IV**_!

The next update is going to a bit of wait, with the next batch being three chapters.  
This was originally _**Chapter II **_in the old version of the story, but I still recommend old readers to read this, as there are two brand new scenes, a few extended scenes and some added foreshadowing you may be interested in.

Some additional details.

Many may have noticed the _**"OC"**_ Tags on this story, this tag is more less for all OCs in general rather than one specific OC, and while I try to use canon characters as much as humanly possible, there is only so much I can do before I make some characters too OOC, and they basically become OCs with canon character skins which is also something that I really want to avoid doing as well, this unfortunately does make OCs necessary for the story.

However I will admit that one_** OC **_will be vital to the story line, but will not be the main focus of the story, merely just one of several moving cogs. The focus is still 1-A and 1-B with the canon heroes that be. (As it should be)

Now one reviewer **Avo385** brought up an excellent question. I'll keep it vague for those are not up to date with the manga. I am aware of the recent revelations to **One For** **All. **And as you know, Yes Izuku will still be receiving **One For All **in this story. However I was among those to theorized that such a thing had been possible due to the foreshadowing that had been given so far. As such I was ready for such a thing and let's just say this to make a point.

I will not expand on Izuku's powers beyond the strength boost, however I will be taking advantage of a few things that came with those revelations, but that will not go into more detail until we get a little deeper into the story.

* * *

**Reviews!**

**_AnimeFan29910:_** Happy to recommend it, it was always a fun read and it deserves some more attention. Also to be fair this story had always been planned, it was much due to a lack of experience on how to tell the story and what details to keep and what not to show too early.

**_Renlu:_** It will be a little ways off, before we see her again, but you'll know when you see it. We will be seeing more of Gang Orca in the future and a few of Hisashi's other friends. Other answers will be in the prequel Draco Knight, which I will have an update on soon.

_**D3lph0xL0v3r:**_ All I can say is that everyone is the hero of their own story. That is no different here.

_**inFamousSlyMonkey:**_ It was a lot of fun to write and we will be seeing more of that in the Prequel story, and I'm glad you like that little detail. It will comeback around in the story.

* * *

**Recommendation **  
Another completed classic.

**_**Warmth**_**_** by Johnny Spectre**_ _**(Chapelseed on AO3)**_

It is a delightful four piece read that I believe was the first to ever introduce the concept of  
IzuOcha+Eri family dynamic and therefore quite an influence on a number of other stories out there.

It is available to read on FF and AO3

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight_**

**_Saga I: Dusk_**

**_Arc I: Origins_**

**_Chapter IV: Deceptions in the Shadows._**

* * *

"_**Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what every man wishes, that he also believes to be true." **_  
**― Demosthenes**

* * *

_"Sir...are you sure you want to do this?" _His subordinate asked carefully.

The man stood silent as the meeting was currently at recess. Kai Doumeki had only gotten this particular offer within hours of his invitation to the meeting, all while he was still grieving over the loss of his former friend. The two may had not spoken in years, but it all came to a head when the announcement was made to all the key department heads who now formed the committee.

_"There is still a chance we can back out of this, sir."_

Kai, again, remained silent. His own rival on the force had warned him all those years ago not to allow a friendship between Pro-Heroes and the Police to exist, and to keep it professional to avoid appearing like one is showing the other favoritism. _No, _he had already learned his lesson well.

"There is no going back from this, but if you want to back out once you have given me the files, then you can." He answered calmly. He could hear his own subordinate now contemplating on his next move.

* * *

Everyone gathered again for the third time on the third day this week. An emergency meeting had been called to all police chiefs of the local city police departments that surrounded the site of the incident. The meeting was held alongside the members of the H.U.C. (also known as The Help Us Company), members of the committee of Heroic Licensing and Regulations, The Hero Public Safety Commission and in addition to members of the Prime Minister's Cabinet which included the Vice-Minister of the Department of Heroics.

The air was thick and heavy with white smoke again as many members had cigarettes lit and smoldering. A couple members have even resorted to drinking on the job due to the stress, despite the protest of a few.

For three days, three _goddamn_ days, they had met, deliberated, argued and debated about the situation at hand. All Might, the World's Symbol of Peace and Justice, had just been critically injured from a large-scale battle of cataclysmic proportions against his greatest foe: _**All For One**__._

_**All For One**_ had been successfully repelled, but between the damages and All Might's own injuries, the committee needed to craft a story to explain the event to the general public. However, there was one underlying key issue that made the situation so difficult.

The death of Hisashi Midoriya, a.k.a. Pro-Hero Draco Knight.

Draco Knight was one of the few Pro-Heroes at the scene of the fight and had backed up All Might in the intense battle. When the dust cleared, _****All for One ****_was gone and All Might was left holding the corpse of his long-time fanboy in his arms.

Hisashi's death was truly at the root of their stress.

The operation began as a collaborative mission to finally rid the world of **All For One**. It had been planned to pit only All Might against him, with the remaining heroes staying out of bounds as both backup, or to serve as crowd and damage control.

However, things did not go as planned, as the battle had soon turned into a complete destructive disaster that ended with heavy damage to the city and several casualties that included, heroes, villains, police and civilians.

All Might's present absence could be easily explained away with him on vacation, touring with foreign agencies; quick and easy covers that were only made easier since All Might had no sidekicks or immediate family keeping close tabs on him.

But the situation with Draco Knight however threw a wrench into all their possible cover-up stories for the incident. His death couldn't be covered up so flippantly, not without questions from the general public and not without risking some form of the truth coming out. If he were a minor ranked pro-hero, it could have been dismissed or brushed aside by the media. Yet Draco Knight was ranked Nine nationwide, and a hero with that high of a profile already had the media's attention 24/7.

It didn't help that when a Pro-Hero was killed in action, the general protocol mandated that a public announcement was to be made within three days after the time of death.

Today was the third and finally day before the announcement had be made, the time was around five o'clock in the afternoon and the announcement must be made no later than the next morning. Among the members of the meeting included the local section chief for the Musutafu Police Department, which happened to be located in Draco Knight's home town. Tuning out all the voices around him, Kai Doumeki had been a police officer for several years and was there at Draco Knight's debut fourteen years ago. Their relationship had once been close, in-between disputes with his department and most of the hero agencies in the city.

Draco Knight was one of the few Pro-Heroes that made conscience efforts to bridge and improve relations with the Heroes and the civilian police. But in his efforts, he wasn't without flaws, especially with the incident seven years ago that forever shook the relationship between the two men. Kai covering for Draco Knight's ass during that incident would wind up costing him dearly, the chance of a promotion being taken away from his grasp.

And now that Draco Knight was dead, he was going to cash in on the favor.

It finally came down to him waiting for both a case for evidence and a small window of opportunity for his plan to come to fruition, when a sudden knock on the door silenced the room and a voice from the one of the door guards called out to everyone inside.

"Excuse me, gentlemen, I have a Detective Hajime Tanaka here to see Chief Doumeki."

Members of the meeting faced the large, grizzled guard, with murmurs and rumblings about this change of events. Kai paused for a moment, adding an air of drama before answering in a commanding voice.

"Send him in."

"Yes, sir."

Here he walked in; tall, head-shaven detective in glasses wearing typical civilian clothing. He needed a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting of the smoky room, and needed an extra minute to spot his supervisor.

Hajime wasn't one to smoke and found the heavy smoky atmosphere much to his displeasure. However, he knew it better to keep such comments to himself. He wasn't happy with his current job assignment and given what he was about to do only compounded these feelings. The documents he had on hand and how he acquired them had left a bad taste in his mouth. He knew what he was involved in was most likely going to haunt him for the rest of his life, but in the end, he owed his Chief his loyalty.

Hajime walked up to his superior and handed the documents to Kai with a simple, "Here are the files you requested sir, including the additional special records."

He was hoping the moment that Kai would start reading the documents that he could simply leave and wash his hands of his role in this unsavory endeavor. Unfortunately, Kai had other plans for the young detective when he motioned Hajime to stay where he was.

_'Damn it.'_

Kai would then take his time to read over the documents, knowing full well the other members of the committee looked at him with a mix of suspense and contempt for basically interrupting the meeting.

_'Just as planned.'_

Once he was done reviewing everything and was satisfied with what he had on hand, he rose from his seat and motioned with his hand to Hajime to follow him to the nearby document camera connected to a projector. He simply handed back said documents to Hajime to project them onto the screen, much to his chagrin of being used to further Kai's ambitions. Kai, on the other hand, simply sat down onto the seat next to the projector, ready to speak as Hajime started the presentation with the first document.

* * *

Quirk Registration Documentation Form #111892T-9RF01

Hisashi Midoriya

Izuku Midoriya #541786T-9RF03

Quirk: **Dragon Shift**

Type: Transformation

Description: The user has the ability to transform or "Shift" limbs or the whole body with those that partly resembles those of classical European Dragon lore or more accurately those of a reptilian nature.

The skin can be turned into hardened scales with the coloration matching primary hair color.

(Hisashi is confirmed to have black scales and his son is confirmed to have green scales)

Hands and feet can be altered into an armored claws for offensive attacks. With certain joints such as elbows that can gain spikes from more pronounced bone density. The teeth of the user can become sharp and pointed during their transformation.

The more drastic the shift, the higher the energy output, more drastic shifts also allow for changes in height and weight, as muscle and bone density adjust to the output allowing for greater speed, strength and agility. Individual limbs can be transformed independently

Higher density scales "Plate Armor" have been confirmed strong enough to repel several types of blades (See incident 1678V-Stend)

Eye color can change in accordance with energy output or **"Mode"**  
Confirmed Colors

Natural -No output- (0%)

Blue **"Light armor"**(1-39%)

Teal **"Medium armor"** (40-69%)

Silver **"Full Armor"** (70-90%)

Gold **"Knight Mode"** Red **"**_**-Information redacted-"**_ (91-100%+)

Irises can change shape and Sclera can become black upon reaching 80% output.

**Contrary to popular belief, Dragon shift does not produce additional limbs such as wings or a tail, but is theorized that if the user had these limbs naturally then they would be able to undergo the transformation as well.**

Medical details:  
The higher the output of energy, the more stamina is used that can render certain recovery quirks useless, until stamina is restored to safe levels. In addition limbs that are shifted can break if the transformation is rushed or shifted in an awkward angle. Small cuts can become large gashes that can cause extreme blood loss.

If a limb is already broken shifting can escalate the injury into a compound fracture* (See incident(s) 11289r-Fu, 7812v-PK)

The fully armored "Knight Mode" the quirk's trademark ultimate form could completely wipe out Hisashi in about nine minutes at his peak; pushing beyond that and the user could run the risk of being rendered unconscious or escalate into

**-Information redacted-**

**-Information redacted-**

Should_** -Information redacted-**_ be engaged, quirks like those possessed by The Pro-Hero Midnight had proven to be very effective as shown during the_**-Information redacted- **_incident dated seven years ago.

* * *

Immediately, like the cork popping from a champagne bottle under pressure, the room broke out into a loud ruckus.

"Chief Doumeki, what is the meaning of this?" Asked one of the other police chiefs.

"These records are supposed to be sealed, Kai! Pulling these files without our leave is a grave misuse of your own authority!" Said another man with copper colored hair from the Heroic Licensing body.

"Is this Draco Knight's quirk registration form?" Asked another, hoping for solid clarification on what he was currently viewing.

"Gentlemen, please," answered Kai with authority, silencing the room. "I believe I have a solution to all our problems right here."

"Explain yourself, Chief Doumeki!" Demanded a member of the ministry.

"I am the section chief of the Police Department from Draco Knight's hometown, so if there is anyone here in this room that truly knew Draco Knight, it is me," Kai began; "this includes a number of things that were off the record."

Instantly, the tension in the room grew. Kai had tried to keep his voice neutral, but there was an air of frustration that was now clearly heard.

"Very few realized that Draco Knight had very destructive powers. However…" As he spoke, he motioned to Hajime to display the next image. "An off the record incident from seven years ago is proof of this."

'_**Click.'**_

The room began to mutter and whisper with questions.

"Looks familiar, doesn't it? The destruction isn't as great, but it is familiar to what all of you had witnessed three days ago, is it not?"

At last, he had arrived to the point that he wanted to get across to the members of this meeting.

"Kai… are you suggesting we pin this whole thing on Draco Knight?"

"Am I suggesting that we should say Draco Knight went rogue? No. Of course not. Instead, what I am saying is that we should, in fact, give full credit of the operation _to him."_

"So just take All Might out of the picture completely?"

Slowly, but surely, the congregation pieced together Kai's plan.

"If we do that... the destruction would go on his record, and the lost lives and damages would fall squarely on him."

"His legacy would basically go down in a disgrace!"

"I don't think his agency would be able to even afford all the costs."

"As estimates stand, his wife, Inko, now legally owns his agency and would be responsible for the costs."

"We can take the majority of the cost out of the planned reward money for the operation. Yet even with that, _The Drake's Den_ would most likely be liquidated to just settle most of the costs."

"That would be horrible for his family and all the sidekicks that were under his employment!"

"KAI!" Another Section-Chief one by the name of Kaoru Kiryuuin, stood up and pointed a stern finger, looking at Kai squarely in the eye. "There is an ulterior motive for this, isn't there? I will not stand for something like this! Mark my words, I will make sure internal affairs will look into this!"

Amidst the chaos, Kai had been already prepared for this. He knew some his rivals in the justice force would take this chance to try and take him down a notch. This is a dog eat dog world, after all, with Kaoru now being his biggest threat to his plan.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, _please_. Let me make one thing clear: I have nothing against Draco Knight. This has nothing to do about my personal feelings towards him," through his calm demeanor, Kai lied through his teeth.

He then pointed back onto the projected screen of the damages made years ago.

"This is to prevent a mass panic among the citizens with our number one hero, All Might, who – _might I remind you_ – is currently still in the middle of surgery. Our number nine ranked hero is dead, and right now, with the goddamn media at our door is not helping with how that battle being the absolute _shit show_ it was. This solution that I am proposing should take care of all our issues, all in one fell swoop."

Many members could see the rationale behind the plan, as it would solve many of their current issues, but the morality of the decision still rang wrong in their hearts. Kai remained undeterred, taking the chance to strike while the iron was still hot.

"Gentlemen, we need to put this to a vote, and we have very few options left. We either announce Draco Knight's death with a half-baked plan that would be dissected by the media to uncover the truth, or! We tell essentially most of the truth, and simply leave All Might out the picture. Now, shall we put a vote on this?"

"His death in battle wouldn't be inaccurate."

"I'm just tired of all of this!"

"We _are_ out of time..."

Kai smiled. His personal victory was assured as the votes were tallied, the truth that he had shaped and securing a positive step in his future. The final tally of the thirty-four individuals who could vote, the results were of a resounding twenty-eight voter approval to six. Kaoru was among the six to reject Kai's proposal.

**"Very well," **the meeting foreman announced. **"The votes are in; even to those who ultimately oppose this plan, a gag order is now in place for this incident. The 'official' story will be carefully rewritten to suit what the committee has decided."**

**_Bang!_ **

With the strike his gavel, Draco Knight's fate was sealed.

**"This meeting has been adjourned."**

When Kai returned to his personal office in his home hours later, he saw that his wife had left him a new bottle of his favorite sake on his desk. He had put in the order of this sake a few months ago, as the makers of this popular and expensive brand often only made limited quantities per year. With an accomplished smile, he grabbed a small, ceramic sake set from the cupboard to the left of his desk and poured a small amount from the new bottle.

"What better way to celebrate to a new future eh, Draco Knight?" He toasted to the night sky from the window behind his desk. He first sipped slowly but after a moment he followed quickly with one swift movement as he downed the sake.

The beverage is normally savored slowly, however today the drink felt strangely bitter to him. But before he could think ponder why this was the case, he heard his cellphone ring in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw a familiar name on it as he answered.

"Mr. Anno," he greeted pleasantly."It's good to speak to you, sir... Yes, the plan went without a hitch. I can see the headlines tomorrow – without a doubt, this is your chance. The New Conventional Movement can finally get its head start from here on out."

"Now, about the few possible problems in the foreseeable future..." Kai continued, "Yes, I think a new office would be nice, and allow some protection against a certain _someone_."

When the call came to an end, he cleaned up the sake cup he used earlier and placed the bottle away for safekeeping.

"Maybe it will taste sweeter when I can celebrate properly..." He said with a small sigh. "For a real special occasion."

Kai sat on his chair before spying in the cover of his eye a piece of paper. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be an old, dusty photo. He pulled it out and nearly gasped, knowing this photo too well. It was him when he was a young trooper, not long as after he joined the force. In his arms was a dark-haired boy with bright golden eyes, wearing dirty, torn up clothes and looking nearly half-starved.

It was the boy he had once found and saved from the streets, a rough and troubled boy who grew up to be a hero...

A boy he just now damned.

* * *

**_-One week later_**

In what is considered to be the best, top-ranked and privately-owned hospital in the country, Naomasa Tsukauchi stood in the waiting room, awaiting to enter the intensive care facility. His friend, Toshinori Yagi, had finally awoke from a short-lived coma after an exhaustive, life-saving surgery.

Toshinori was otherwise be known as the Pro-Hero All Might, ranked First in Japan and the widely acknowledged World's Symbol of Peace and Justice. Naomasa was more than just nervous. It had been four days since the press conference announcing the official report of the destructive battle that caused the death of Draco Knight. He wasn't sure if the doctors had already informed All Might, or if All Might was in a coherent enough state to even properly understand what was going on.

Then again, those in charge were treating All Might had been grounded and placed lock down, assuring his complete privacy and security during his stay. Along with that, there was a subtle notion for all hospital staff to not to breathe a word of what they have witnessed and to what they had been involved in all last week.

"Detective?" Called a voice from ahead.

Naomasa looked up to see All Might's physician.

"He is ready to see you. Please try not excite or agitate him for now, as he is still recovering."

Naomasa paused, then nodded before slowly bowing the doctor in thanks before walking in. He knew that All Might would be angry once he heard what the committee had done. Just how angry is was what Naomasa wasn't sure about, and notion of that terrified him.

"Tsu... Tsukauchi?" Naomasa had to give pause, as if he wasn't sure what he was seeing was real.

"All Might?" His eyes widened as he saw the skinny, weak frame of The World's Symbol of Peace.

"I know, my friend." His voice was tired, raw and somber.

"It seems like it's finally that time to look for a proper successor. Nighteye did always have good points in matters like this," he finished with a light, ironic chuckle.

Naomasa would use this moment to take a seat next to Toshinori, dreading the news he would have to break to his friend.

"All Mig –"

"Draco Knight is dead."

Naomasa stopped himself again. It was a clear statement, not a question. All Might knew something was up already, but just how much did he know?

"I...I made a mistake during the fight. By the time everything was settled, I knew it was too late for him. That fanboy... I should be dead right now if it wasn't for him." Toshinori's voice had finally broke, his eyes hidden.

It was in this moment Naomasa knew that news he was about to give was only to make everything worse for his friend. But it needed to be done.

"All Might."

Toshinori looked his friend, eyes widening as he heard those accursed words.

_'Those sons of bitches.'_

* * *

Izuku laid in his bed, as he had been for the last week. Another warm spring day had arrived, perfect weather for training – but not today. Izuku wasn't sure of himself anymore, especially right now.

It seemed silly, almost laughable to him. He knew perfectly well that something like this could have happened. It was the part of being a Pro-Hero that sooner or later something big could happen, that the risks involved could easily get one injured or killed. He had already had to go through with sleepless nights with his mother before, when his father and or cousin had gotten severely injured on duty.

He remembered days when he would happily assist his father around the house during the worse of his recovery days, but this was _different._ Izuku still couldn't believe it.

He didn't want to believe it.

He couldn't accept that his own father was really gone.

His thoughts were flooded by all of the memories with his family and friends. From all of the training, tours to various hero agencies, to flashbacks of serving the community and following by All Might's example. Hisashi would, on slow days, get with his sidekicks who were on shift that day to help with several community service projects. He often leading the charge with Izuku in tow, with an air gusto that could get even some of the more resistant sidekicks to willingly join. However, Hisashi was quite disappointed in Katsuki's unwillingness to join his community service projects after he had began training both him and Izuku.

He would, instead, use it as a lesson for Izuku for when he got older.

_"Listen Izuku, when it comes to hero work, it isn't always about being flashy, capturing villains, or saving people. Servitude, even just basic community service, can go a long way. Katsuki has yet to learn the importance of this lesson, and while one day he may come to understand – you, Izuku, already know why we do this. This will allow you to focus on the other aspects of heroism, so that you can become the best hero you want to be."_

A gentle knock at the door stirred Izuku out of his nostalgic recollections, when the voice of his mother called out to him.

"Honey? Are you ready to leave?"

Izuku stared at the door, an All Might poster hanging on his end of it. Part of him knew that he would have to walk through that very door and head out to say goodbye to his father for the last time. Yet, a part of him held a childish belief that if he stayed...that if he stayed put and didn't go, he wouldn't have to accept the truth. That his father was still alive somehow.

_'He could be out on a secret mission.'_

_'He could have moved to work overseas.'_

_'Maybe they were just getting a divorce, and this is how mom wanted to cope.'_

Every one of those ideas would have been better than the truth as he tried to reason with himself. Until his thoughts turned against him.

**He's gone.**

_'No!'_

Izuku could start feeling the tears build in his eyes that blurred his vision as he tried doing everything to try and stop it.

**You need to face reality.**

The heat of his breath that mixed with his quiet sobs was quick to make him sweat. Hot tears already bearing down his eyes rolling on his cheeks burning him.

_'NO!'_

**He's dead.**

The dam inside him broke. Izuku could hear the door open with Inko entering slowly, dressed in a smart black dress and holding onto a box of tissues. She had been crying as well, but today was the day she needed to be strong, at least until Hisashi was finally put to rest in the family grave. Upon seeing her son had been dressed, she knew he was struggling to leave. He was physically ready to leave, but not ready mentally. She walked close slowly extending her arms to wrap around her son gently. She placed his head on her shoulder to allow him to weep.

"Inko, dear are you…oh – I'm so sorry," said a voice by the entrance.

Ryuko, had been staying at the Midoriya household for the last few days both to help with mourning, and to be serving as one-half of the Midoriya family honor guard until after the funeral.

"Izuku, dear, I know this is hard," Inko spoke softly. "The sooner that we do this, the sooner we can begin to heal."

Izuku held his mother tightly as he continued sobbed into her shoulder. After a few more minutes, Izuku stopped when he was ready. He looked at his mother, who simply began wiping ways the remaining tears. Before Izuku could even speak, Inko spoke to almost reading as if she was reading his mind.

"Katsuki's is here along with Mitsuki, Masaru and even Yuu, they're all here and are waiting for us to come down. We won't be alone in this, Izuku. Many people; heroes and civilians alike, loved your father. And while things will never be the same, it will get better in time."

Izuku wanted to deny her words, but didn't. He just wouldn't accept them completely yet. Finally Izuku simply nodded, and the two of them began their journey to see his father. Ryuko remained silent the whole time, and simply walked alongside with her relatives. Katsuki Bakugou was sitting the living room of the Midoriya household with his parents; dressed in a small frame dark suit with a black tie. He normally hated wearing formal clothing like this, but this was an important day. The funeral of his mentor, his master, the father of his best friend. A man that Katsuki had grown to call Uncle.

He would act the best he could today.

He looked around the house he's basically lived in once he started his quirk training. He remembered the day that he had practically begged his uncle to train him. Something he never thought he let himself do, but it wasn't every day you could have one of the top ten Pro-Heroes in the country to train you when you yourself want to go pro, right?

"Katsuki, get up it's time to go," His mother's voice perked him up.

Katsuki looked up to see his best friend coming down the stairs. Izuku climbed down slowly, his eyes were hidden under his hair, followed by Inko and his cousin Ryuko.

Katsuki's own cousin, Yuu, sat nearby in the formal version of her Ketsubutsu Academy uniform. Mitsuki would go up to give Izuku a hug which he returned halfheartedly following Masaru placing a friendly hand to Izuku's shoulder. Katsuki and Yuu both got up to offer their condolences, with Katsuki drawing Izuku into a rare hug. He wasn't the best with expressing these kinds of emotions, but he knew his friend needed this.

"If we are all ready, ma'am. We can head out now," said the Pro-Hero Ingenium, who entered the living room. He, too, was serving as the second half of the Midoriya family honor guard. Tradition called for the lead sidekick and, if avaliable, a former sidekick or intern who had gained their own agency.

"We're ready," said Inko firmly.

With that, Ingenium and Ryukyu would exit first to lead them to one of the limousines that would take them to the temple near the Midoriya family grave. Everything was quiet and even the wind itself keeping still, with the exception of light footsteps and breathing.

The ride to the shrine was fairly quick. On the way to the temple, Katsuki's mind would wander off to the good times had with Hisashi. The holidays, the training days, the tours to various hero agencies with Hisashi. These memories threatened to bring tears to even Katsuki himself as he found himself reaching out to hold the hands of both his parents, truly grateful that they were both still with him. In spite of all the madness they all could drive into each other at times, he still loved them.

"We're here."

Despite Draco Knight's high rank among Pro-Heroes, the funeral and wake were planned to be simple affairs. While this was more due to his humble nature when his last will and testament had been read, what few actually realized was that the funeral and all the costs from the battle were financially draining everything for the Midoriya family.

Inko had worked as one of the marketing managers for Hisashi's agency before getting pregnant, and now legally owned his agency postmortem. Unfortunately, she was already making plans to their sell their old home to move to the small apartment on the outskirts of the city. She knew it would make Izuku sad to leave his childhood home, so she at least made sure that their new home would still be close to UA since Izuku still had dreams to go there.

There was, however, one more benefit to their relocation, which was that they were going to be living much closer to the Bakugou family who had been such a pillar of support for them. Ryuko had been a great help to the Midoriya family, getting things organized for her new boss, as temporary as it was going to be. Alongside with her, all of Hisashi's sidekicks had chipped in money-wise as much as they could. They all knew _The Drake's Den _was going to close regardless of the outcome, but the Midoriyas were going to be in the red for quite some time afterwards. In turn, they were going to return the favor the best they could to Hisashi's surviving family.

As everyone arrived at the shrine, they could see other mourners in attendance. This included Pros and Sidekicks alike, even Pro-Hero Endeavor along with his whole family had arrived in civilian attire. Ingenium would split from the group to join with his pregnant wife, Fuyumi. As the main party entered the temple, they could see the shrine that had three pictures of Hisashi Midoriya: the first one was in his Hero costume, the second of him in civilian clothing smiling, and the final was his official Hero License Portrait as tradition called for.

The burning smell of incense, along with the chanting of the monks who tended the temple grounds, helped to put many of the mourners at peace. Inko and Izuku were seated nearby the shrine, with the first rows of the guests starting the ceremony. This would go on for hours, guests going before the shrine to burn an incense, bow and pray for the soul of Hisashi; followed by going before Inko and Izuku to bow before them, then returning back to the crowd.

Izuku wasn't able to really pay attention to all the guests, except for one man who did catch his eye. Wearing a dark suit that seemed far too big for him, he was painfully thin with blond hair and sunken in blue eyes that seemed familiar to him. He seemed very weak at the moment, as he was using crutches to get by and was being assisted by a police officer who was wearing his dress uniform. Izuku didn't know why his attention was drawn on this man, but something told him he was different from everyone else.

Behind this man's eyes, while filled with grief, had something else hidden. A look of guilt, like a child waiting for reprimanding after caught red-handed. In the end, Izuku would end up paying little to no attention to him as well. He didn't want to seem rude to the rest of the remaining guests after all.

When the ceremony concluded and most of the guest had left the temple, it was only Izuku, Inko, Ryuko, and the Bakugou family plus Katsuki's cousin Yuu, who would stay to eat, drink and speak fondly of Hisashi. When they all left to return to the Midoriya household, the guests were welcomed to stay the night. The Bakugou's gladly accepted, knowing that family needed the support and company.

It was here, however, that Katsuki knew something was off with Izuku. He saw something that he wished he could have ignored before everyone went to bed. He had overheard Inko speaking with Izuku,

"Honey, even after all of this... do you still want to be a Pro-Hero?"

Izuku looked up with determination, but Katsuki knew better when he saw Izuku's face. No, not his face, but his mask that bore a hollow smile and dull eyes.

"Yes," He finally answered.

His answer seemed enough for Inko. But the moment she had left him alone, Katsuki could see the changing shift in his friend's face. The expression of uncertainty, as Katsuki and Izuku had only ever shared the dream of one day becoming Pro-Heroes.

For Katsuki, he had zero doubts, but he could see the increasing doubt and insecurity Izuku had at that moment. He wasn't wrong; Izuku was hurting as he felt like he had just lied to his own mother.

There was no doubt in his heart that all he ever wanted in his whole life was to be a Pro-Hero, just like his father and their idol, All Might. It was the only future he could ever see himself in. But what pained him was the small, persistent hole of doubt that was slowly gnawing inside him.

Did he really have the heart to become a Pro-Hero?

Right now, Izuku wasn't sure of himself of that.

And that very idea terrified him.

* * *

The Doctor moved swiftly to make sure his master was comfortable. The battle had taken so much out of him, and it was only due to his great power that assured his continued survival. The labored breathing of his master making him uneasy. His master groaned, and spoke with a light hiss that made the warm room feel so cold.

"Doctor..."

He slowly turned to him.

"Yes, master?"

"What is the progress of the Crowning Project?"

The Doctor seemed to breathe easier now, the master still had his senses to check in on such an important project. Needless to say, choosing a potential successor now was more important than ever before.

"Progress is going smoothly, master. We are ready to begin the next round of culling, but the boy you personally brought in is leading the pack," He answered, grabbing a remote to turn on the mounted monitor on the nearby wall.

What the master couldn't see was the display of all the kneeling children, who were giving their patronage before the screen in front of them, with several researchers and guards seen on the sidelines. In the front, the eldest and currently favorite child stood Tenko Shimura, or _**"Tomura Shigaraki"**_ as he goes by these days. He was the first among them and the leader over all others, a clear sign of his ranking.

Behind him were eleven other children, all hidden in the shadows and behind the amalgamation of figures of different shapes and sizes. Once they numbered a few hundred, now only twelve remained. Yet all these children had one thing in common: even the void of darkness was seen in their eyes. Ruby-red or golden-yellow, these eyes were ones who all competed to become the next master, from titles that ranged from _**The Emperor of Darkness, The Cardinal Emperor,**_ or_** The King of the Underworld.**_

All these titles were meaningless, compared to the true villainous title and the power that came with.

**All For One.**

* * *

**Author's commentary**

*Compound fracture, if you have a weak stomach do not look this up. You have been warned.  
To put it bluntly, this is when a bone sticks out of the body often due to breaking bones, but there are other ways for it to happen without breaking a bone.

**(I have seen a lot of shit in my life working in the medical field)**

So as I mentioned above, this was originally Chapter II of the original version of this story and old readers already know what some of that redacted information already is and why is it terrifying. This was one of the chapters in which a reviewer (who no longer seems to comment on my works, which makes me a bit sad since their input was always great and well thought out) gave me direct feedback and really helped me develop and hone my skills as a writer.  
This is why I ask for that input to get even better than I was when I first started.

Anyway guys that is it for today. The next Chapter; _**Chapter V The Lost Hero **_is another brand new chapter that was not found in the old version  
in the first version of the story.

As always my dear reader until time and with lots of love

_-X_


	5. The Lost Hero

Sorry for the delay my dear readers!

Good news! The next chapter will be uploaded within the next five days! _**VI**_ will be out on 4/15/19 and _**VII**_ on 4/17/19! Even better news! I'm already done with the next four (yes FOUR) chapters and they have already been given to my beta reader to go over. We are already getting caught up to where we left off from the original.

Once we get caught up, we should be returning back to a roughly every 7-10 day upload schedule that I will try my very best to stick with.

I do have an update to Draco Knight coming very soon, but I will be updating the title on the same document. The new title will mirror the reboot. **_My Hero Academia Untold: Draco Knight_**. I am planning to get a second beta reader to handle this project and a few other projects I have lined up.

Last I have decided, once we get caught up to the original. I will be deleting the original version so just a heads up there.

* * *

**Reviews!**

_**D3lph0xL0v3r: **_Passion is a good thing, don't apologize for it! As for the rest...well let the story unfold. You may be surprised.

_**moonstar31548: (1) **_That was what one of things I missed in the original. (Fun fact chapter 3 was originally supposed to be Draco Knight chapter) **(2) **There so much to unpack for this story, but all I can say is that there is two sides to every story.

_**QwetyBobberson**__:_ For the most part yes, however there are some key details (can't point them out for spoilers) that need to be adjusted to avoid plot holes that I foresaw in the original version.

_**valiusmacto**__:_ All I can say is, I love MHA for the same reasons. But part of a story is conflict, I am hoping to make this a more hopeful story as time goes on, but angst (as much as I'm not the biggest fan) is needed to balance and cause a want to want to return to happier times.

_**beingwithu:**_ It's hard to write parts like this, but needed.

_**inFamousSlyMonkey:**_Glad you did. Hope you keep on enjoying.

**Ooobserver:** I'm glad to make your reading experience better. As for Kai and Hisashi, I recommend reading Draco Knight, as we will get more depth with the true nature of their relationship and a more depth look of Hisashi before he died. (But I also recommend waiting until the update)

_**Yin**__**Furtive: **_Ah Yin. I never mind a late review as all feedback is valuable. I'm glad you enjoyed the old and the new. And as usual, I get the biggest smile on my face when I see readers, actively trying to figure things out and...you are on the money on a few things and complete off track on a few others. That's all I can say without spoilers. Like the original, Arc is basically pure set up, with Arc II onward starting to reveal answers and possibly opening up new questions.

* * *

**Recommendation**

Today will be **_**The Turnover!**_**_** By Ooobserver**_

A funny parody of the movie "The Hangover"  
It's the day before Izuku's wedding to Ochako and the guys take him for a night on the town to Las Vegas and oh is it just a fun read! It's only 10 chapters, but the good news that it's a fun binge read.

Available to read on FF. net

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight_**

**_Saga I: Dusk_**

**_Arc I: Origins_**

**_Chapter V: The Lost Hero_**

* * *

**_"People are not born strong. People grow stronger little by little, encountering difficult situations, learning not to run from them."  
_**_**-Christina Grimmie**_

* * *

"All of those sons of bitches have no idea of the damage they have caused, and what the results could mean in the world of Pro-Heroes..." Toshinori sighed as he slumped into the seat of his desk, with his only companion being his former sidekick, Sir Nighteye.

"Indeed," the tall slender man answered as he removed his glasses to clean off some invasive smudges. "I feel like there is much more to this than meets the eye. At least, at first glance."

Toshinori nodded in agreement. He had been at meetings week after week in an attempt to overturn the Draco Knight decision. However, he had been out of the field for too long, and to make matters worse, a minor political movement had blown up by using the incident as the basis for their platform. When the National Diet soon dissolved, a series of special elections occurred and several of the members in the committee found themselves either promoted or risen to brand new positions. Among them, Kai Doumeki was one who recently celebrated his promotion right when All Might came into view.

In the public eye, All Might had congratulated the newly made Chief-Superintendent. Yet in private, the two powers clashed, Kai making it clear on where he stood on the whole matter.

"That was always a weakness in the Pro-Hero system," Sir Nighteye spoke quietly. "In the end, we are still simply civil servants and some of our powers are still tied to the hands of the Diet, the Ministry, H.P.S.C. and the police."

"I have to do something," Toshinori answered, conviction found in his voice. "I cannot let this injustice to stand."

"What do you plan to do?"

"I spoke to Tsukauchi, and he believes he has something that can work. But we would be playing the long game from here on out."

It was Sir Nighteye's turn to sigh. He had used his quirk not too long ago to look ahead into the future, and needless to say he wasn't very happy about his own near future and all of the sacrifices he could have to make. But knew that Toshinori couldn't pull it off alone, or run for government in his current state.

**Knock, knock, knock.**

The two men sat up, Sir Nighteye calling out,

"Who is it?"

"It's me with a few guests." They heard the muffled voice of Naomasa behind the door.

With a quick _**POOF,**_ Toshinori assumed his heroic transformation.

"Come in," All Might spoke up firmly.

When the door opened, the detective came in with a few particular guests by his side. To his surprise, this included another section chief of police.

"Please excuse me, All Might," spoke the policeman, his mane of white hair brushed back with his hand.

"Indeed. Please do forgive our addition," Edgeshot said as the ninja themed hero suddenly appeared, a tall man with blue hair and arrow-shaped eyebrows. Tensei Iida was off-duty, but given the situation on hand, he knew he had to act. "We didn't give the dear detective much choice in the matter."

As the guests entered and took to their seats, All Might couldn't help but be on edge, now with a cop he had spoken to earlier and made no effort to counter the proposal.

"I suppose, I should start." The officer spoke up first, "for those of you who do not know me, I am Kaoru Kiriyuuin, a section chief and a member of the committee that recently voted on the incident a few weeks ago."

He began, adjusting the cuffs on his suit, "I was among the few who actively voted against the measure to allow Draco Knight's disgrace, and when that failed, I attempted to open an internal affairs investigation. As I suspected, it was quickly shut down the moment Kai Doumeki got elevated to Chief Superintendent."

"Only the Public Safety Commission could put the screws in him now, but as you may have noticed, the recent shift in government included several new appointees on the commission itself." He pressed on, "Gentlemen, I don't know about you, but this all happening at once seems strangely _too_ convenient for my taste. Further, it doesn't help that Kai privately came out as a member of the National Worker Quirkless Rights Party, one that as of late has joined hands with the Neocon movement and gained traction within the Diet."

"Too convenient, indeed," Edgeshot added with some snark in his voice, "are there no checks for civil servants to promote one party over another?"

"He's only come out as a member recently, and only as a civilian, but he is well known as one of the Chief-Superintendents, and since he is the only quirkless one too, it makes him a prime poster boy for the movement."

All Might's eyes grew wide; "he's quirkless?"

"Yes sir." Kaoru answered, "we started both started our careers in law enforcement at the same time, so I have known him since my first day on the force. And despite his recent actions, I have to be the first to admit that Kai was a damn good cop, from firearms training to being a detective, even though he lacked a quirk to assist him with his duty."

"And here I thought the police couldn't use their quirks," Sir Nighteye said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"To stop villains, you are correct. But everything else is fair game," Kaoru sharply answered. "Unless you are going admit to never using your lie detection quirk? When you get statements, Tsukauchi?" He added, turning to the detective in question.

Naomasa answered without skipping a beat,

"No sir, it's like you say – we're actively forbidden to use offense-based quirks to combat villains. However, support quirks to assist with our own jobs are not, provided we get independently certified, of course."

"A loophole in the law," Tensei quietly observed. He wasn't above doing such things himself; after all, he may be the head leader of his agency, but he had partners who aren't quite on the legal side of the law, in spite of their good intentions.

"All of that aside, I'm assuming you have another means to combat the problem?" Sir Nighteye spoke up.

"Yes. Since Kai is now my superior, but not my direct superior, I can commission you heroes to launch an independent investigation. I got the go ahead from my own superior to do so."

"What exactly do you need?"

"Hard evidence of collusion: bribes, and the such. But the biggest issue is the amount of resistance I am meeting from the new commission. We need evidence that could not be disputable. Something that even members of the commission who favor Kai would have no choice but to sell him down the river."

"That could take a while, especially if we're trying to do it under the radar," Tensei added. "From witnesses of the incident, that aren't under orders to keep silent but of course if there are members of the government involved that have just as much to hide..."

"Of course I can jus –" All Might started, before everyone including Naomasa, interrupted with a strong, unanimous,

**"No."**

"All Might, I can understand why you would want to do this, but you simply cannot forget that you are the Symbol of Peace," Sir Nighteye argued. "Testify, and you'll be stripped of your Hero license, regardless of your conviction."

"While yes, theoretically, you could restore Draco Knight's legacy back from disgrace. But then, we would be down our greatest hero and asset, and Draco Knight would still be dead." He continued flatly, "besides, let's say we do get Kai down with your testimony alone – as Iida said, what if there are other forces at work here? Something we are not seeing; behind the shadows?"

Everyone turned to face Sir Nighteye.

"You saw something… didn't you?" All Might asked calmly, keeping in mind of Nighteye's quirk.

"I don't know all the details... but I do know there is something more at work here. I'm afraid that even with this investigation and taking down Kai Doumeki alone, I doubt we will find out everything."

"Then what do you propose we do?" Edgeshot turned to him with crossed arms.

"You all will go ahead with the investigation. I, on the other hand...will be running for office in the Diet."

The room went completely silent.

"You… You'd be giving up your own license just to go into politics, Nighteye?" Tensei asked in disbelief.

"Having someone on the inside of the Diet wouldn't be the worst idea," Edgeshot said after giving it some thought.

"Far from it. Not to mention having someone in office to perform audits and investigations within the Diet may turn out for the better in finding hard evidence connecting Kai to one or more affiliated parties that subscribe to the Neocon ideology, in less than legal ways," Kaoru said as pieced his plan together, rubbing his chin, "Imagine if this scandal was much bigger than we thought… This could end up looking like a hero-lead coup of the government, something we must avoid as well."

"If I might add," Tensei interrupted with a raised finger. "My father-in-law has already started his own case."

"What?" All Might said, slightly stunned at the revelation.

"Endeavor has his own contacts with the police and H.U.C., and once he didn't find certain details that matched up to record, he discovered the truth as well... Fortunately, he took it much better than Gang Orca, who I swear, was ready to charge into the Musutafu Police Headquarters to drag Doumeki out."

"I'm sure that would've been a sight to see," Edgeshot admitted with dry laugh.

"I suppose being ranked second helps with getting results when it comes with investigations."

"We could get a few others involved, other top pro-heroes who would want to protect themselves from something like this from happening," Naomasa suggested.

"I just want justice for my best friend," Edgeshot said solemnly. "But I do know Beat Jeanist would be of help as well."

"I think it's safe to say we're all in agreement," All Might suddenly stood up.

"Normally, I would hate to do this, delaying the serving of justice. But everyone here has a valid point. I couldn't live with myself by leaving this matter to be, so Chief Kiriyuuin," he said as he turned to the chief. "I accept your proposal. I will assist in wherever I can. I can even make a few calls to some contacts I know and trust to assist with the investigation."

Kaoru nodded, happy to see All Might as a strong ally to their plan. Still he also knew that he needed to clear the air as the odd man out.

"I want to make something clear," the section-chief said. "I understand that because of this, trust in the police and government has, without question, been shaken. I just want you all to know that I tried all I could, and will continue to try and restore that trust."

"Given that one of my best friends is on the force, I know this all to well," All Might reaffirmed, "but I thank you for your cooperation Chief. It is good to personally know that there are good people on our side, from the police side of matters."

"Well, I think it's about time we begin a plan of action," Sir Nighteye finished up, now ready to conclude their meeting.

The foundation was formed to get justice for Hisashi Midoriya, yet little did they all know that this investigation would lead to a path of revelations that would soon change society forever.

* * *

"Ow..." Izuku groaned out when he felt the cotton swab soaked in disinfectant being dabbed on his wounds.

"Oh Izu... Why didn't you protect yourself?" Yuu sadly frowned as she patched up poor Izuku, all while Katsuki sat in the corner with face filled with malice. His knuckles were red and raw, waiting for his turn to be fixed up by his cousin.

"I didn't want to cause more trouble..." Izuku answered softly, unable to look at Yuu in the face.

Yuu Takayama had been living with the Bakugou family ever since she got accepted to Ketsubutsu Hero Academy. In the short amount of time she had been living there, she quickly fulfilled the role of big sister to both Katsuki and Izuku; the former having known each other for far longer as familial cousins, and the latter easily grew attached, considering the green-haired boy sweet and kind nature alongside his afflicted bout of depression since his father's passing a little over a year ago.

"Tch. Don't blame yourself, you didn't start any trouble, Izu..." Yuu said with a click of her tongue. "But even without your quirk you still could have at least held them off right? At least without doing any extra damage?"

Izuku opened his mouth as if to answer, but in the end, he couldn't find the words.

_'I'm just a coward...'_

"It doesn't matter..." Katsuki growled out from the corner, Yuu turning around to face her cousin.

"What do you mean it doesn't matter, Katsu?!" She questioned, annoyed by the tone of his voice.

"I made the pricks pay for messing with him. They'll think twice before pulling that crap again haha- _oh shit_!" Katsuki sneered before needing to hit the deck, dodging an empty plastic water bottle that had been aimed right for his head.

"Katsu, it's good for you to help him out, but you're not always going to be there to help, y'know!" Yuu said in frustration.

"If I'm not there, then what kind of hero would I be?" Katsuki angrily retorted.

"I thought your quirk was 'explosion' not 'multiplication,' _Katsu_. You can't be at two places at once, and Izu is more than capable of protecting himself," Yuu shot back.

"Please stop," Izuku spoke up, tears forming his eyes. He didn't want the two to keep fighting.

Yuu sighed before wrapping Izuku into a hug.

"I'm sorry Izu," She said gently rubbing his back. "I'm not saying you should get over it right away, but I'm pretty sure your dad would want you to at least defend yourself."

Katsuki wanted to retort back, but he knew to what little credit he would give his cousin that she did have a point. Had his master been there, he would've preferred for Izuku to protect himself than simply let himself get assaulted. On the surface, it appeared that Izuku's inability to defend himself was due to him being unable to use his quirk anymore. And shortly after the announcement of Hisashi's death, Izuku's quirk could no longer be activated, either on purpose or by accident. Izuku had effectively become quirkless from that day forward, when the doctors diagnosed him with a "mental block," a rare condition in which severe trauma or stress can cause the mind to effectively shuts down the body's ability to access either key features or the whole quirk completely.

But beyond the public eye, Katsuki knew something else that everyone else has yet realized, including even Izuku himself. Before his untimely death, Hisashi had sworn to him a secret about his quirk, positioning Katsuki as a safeguard to protect Izuku, or more accurately, protect others from his quirk in the worst-case scenario.

He shuddered at the mere thought about it now more than ever, even to the point of willing to take his secret to the grave if needed. A part of him wanted to ask Izuku if he himself was even aware of _**that feature**_ rooted deep within his quirk, but feared revealing or reminding him of the truth would only drive Izuku further into the quirkless rut he was in. Until then, Katsuki would simply guard and watch over his friend until he would eventually, hopefully soon, overcome his inner turmoil.

"There we are…" Yuu chirped placing one more bandage on the bridge of Izuku's nose.

"Thanks Takaya –"

"Izu, just call me 'Yuu' for god's sake," Yuu laughed, interrupting the green-haired boy who broke out in blush.

"Careful now... I don't wanna call the cops on my cousin now, do I?" Katsuki snickered as Yuu's response was to him flip him off, causing Katsuki to break out in a fit of laughter.

"W-w-well, thanks, Yuu..." Izuku managed to stutter out, getting up to go home.

"You sure you'll be fine, Izu?" Yuu reached out to him out of concern.

"Yeah... I don't want to be a bother more so th-"

"Oh, stop that Izu! You aren't a bother at all!" Yuu snapped, before warmly reminding him, "just be careful on your way home, and say hi to your mom for us, okay?"

"Okay, thanks again." Izuku bowed before leaving from the Bakugou residence.

Katsuki slumped back into his bed as Yuu began to treat his hands.

"I'm sorry, Katsu."

Katsuki looked up at his cousin.

"I know you mean well, and I'm happy you're not the arrogant little shit you could've been, but I'm also surprised that you didn't encourage him to start protecting himself, too. If you both want to be pros, then he needs to be able to do that for himself."

Katsuki sighed to himself. Hisashi had managed to stomp out most of Katsuki's worst habits early on, long before they had a chance to take root. This included a rather bad habit of calling Izuku by the name of **"Deku."** He often told Katsuki he was more like himself as a child, but thankfully had been able to grow out of the worst of his own habits and immaturity. Hisashi made it a point to prove that pride was good thing, but arrogance could be his undoing later down the line if he wasn't careful. On the other hand, this also made Katsuki more hesitant when dealing with Izuku and people in general.

"We got time," Katsuki groaned, his hands stinging from Yuu's treatment. "We start middle school soon, and we'll get a fresh start for him to get himself together, alright _Miss Giant?_"

Yuu scoffed as she applied some added pressure to the injury for his cheeky comment.

"Ow, you bitch!"

"Ugh, don't remind me! I swear, I'm gonna change that code name when I go pro!"

* * *

Izuku safely made it home without issue. It was dark and gloomy once he was inside, and many of the lights in the apartment were off to save on the electric bill. His mother was most likely working overtime just to make sure they had extra money on hand for the month. Now in the lonely, dim-lit apartment, Izuku sighed and quickly got to work on the chores around the house. He usually had the TV on to listen to the news as background noise, a way to make himself feel lonely. But instead, he opted to grab his headphones and a small, cheap pocket radio, and just as luck would have it, Present Mic's "**Talk to the Mic!**" radio show was just starting.

Tuning in just in time when Izuku got to work did help chase away the dark thoughts.

_"Hey there, listeners!" _He could hear the sound-based hero announce,_ "Welcome back to Talk to the Mic! With me, Present Mic!"_

_"Today, we've got a number of exciting topics and guests, but first! A rundown of today's news!" _He said before his voiced turned somber.

_"We have some unfortunate updates regarding a recent rise in crimes, with reports of murders that ranged from people who have been for lack of a better term 'Decayed to death' or drained of blood in other cases. Other incidents include a recent string of fires that have broken out, but due to many being electrical in nature along with the recent heatwave wave, the police are unsure if these incidents are villain committing arson or simply accidental. For now, it has yet to be a confirmed report by federal investigators."_

Izuku shuddered upon hearing the news.

_"As always dear listeners, stay safe and be sure report any suspicious activity to the police or your local pro-hero! And with that out of the way, we'll get started with a quick interview with one of the masters of laughter, a riot in the ranks, the Pro-Hero Marx!"_

Izuku sighed as he turned off the radio for the next five or so minutes, feeling a bad taste in his mouth. Marx, to put mildly, was a hero of a questionable reputation. While nothing had thus far been proven against him, his father had shared no love for this guy. And although he never gave a real reason as to why, Izuku knew this man was up to no good. His father was the kind of person who had a very short list of things he hated, so if Marx was disliked, he must have been guilty off of the short list.

Izuku simply carried on with his chores, cleaning and sweeping what little room they had in the small apartment in silence. He tried to turn his thoughts to happier moments, only for the brief reminiscence caused burning, bitter tears to run down his cheeks.

'_I will be a Pro... I will be a Hero... I will be a Proper Knight!'_

An inner dialogue that played on repeat as an attempt to cheer himself up when caught up in his sorrow.

Soon, he finished up his chores and went to continue a light regime of training, a habit to keep himself fit in spite of his fatigue from working all day. He wouldn't allow himself to slack off, quirk or no quirk… He had to continue – if not for himself, but for his mother, who in her grief would still cry herself to sleep after when she thought Izuku was in bed.

* * *

"Report."

Tomura spoke out in the darkness.

"Ohhh! Lookie here Tomura being the big boss~ "

He heard a high-pitched laugh as he saw the golden-yellow eyes of his "sister," appearing from the darkness; the smacking of her lips being a dead giveaway on which sister it was.

"I'm here, back from the hunt~," she called back sitting on crate nearby.

Another voice with a deeper heavier tone spoke up, this "brother" with ruby-red eyes much like himself. "Crushing a few skulls is fun and all, but I'm ready for a bigger challenge," He grunted out; his larger frame making him easier to see compared to his sister in the darkness.

Tomura groaned internally, the only reason he was still around was due to his strength when he was sent to the culling rounds. He was stupid, but his power as a damage sponge meant he was still among their ranks.

"Shut up, you damned savage." Tomura's head turned to face the direct of the new voice. He smiled as in his mind he knew this one was his biggest rivals for the succession was here; spotting his golden-yellow eyes that just appeared out in the darkness to his left.

"I'm here, _brother. _The last job was boring, but I think the message was clear. Also, I'm pretty sure it's just going to be us. I got word from Tsubasa and the others that they're going to be running late."

Tomura laughed, making the group wary and tense.

Of course, Tsubasa would let him know and not himself, despite that he is supposed leader of the pack.

"Then they'll have to get updated later," Tomura started with a snap of his fingers to grab everyone's attention. "For now then, it's just us. The Master has informed me that the next round of culling will be next year."

"Oh? We get to know when the next set of us goes _bye-bye _now?" The sister asked, while the other large red-eyed brother laughed with joy. He had hoped to be pitted against either brother for a chance to kill one of them.

"So, this was what you meant… Unless we tell the others what they're missing out, we'll have an edge to prepare ourselves." The golden-eyed brother observed quietly.

"There is only eight of us left," Tomura spoke out. "Soon, we'll be groomed directly to take charge of others. Maybe I'll be kind and just have you all as my lieutenants instead of just killing you."

There was a brief moment of silence before everyone in the room suddenly broke out in a fit of laughter at this statement.

_**It was a lie.**_

There was no way out of this game. You either win the throne, or you die. They had learned time and time again that this was the absolute law, back when so many siblings that had been with them.

"That's a good one, Tomura!" The golden-eyed brother spoke. "I should tell Uncle Kuro about that one, see if he laughs, too."

Their laughter continued, and the heirs of darkness knew that their time together was slowly coming to an end.

* * *

**Author's commentary.**

There really isn't much to say for this chapter but there are a few added clues and foreshadowing conflicts.  
The next new chapter (_**Chapter VIII**_) I hope will be a real shake up for old readers.

That's all for now. I do hope you look forward to the updated familiar chapters later this week.

As always with lots of love

**-X**


	6. What it means to be a Hero

The Reboot to Draco Knight has launched! It's still under the same document. But it's title as also been updated to

**My Hero Academia Untold: Draco Knight **

And with that I am formally declaring that there will be additional stories to the _**"Untold Universe"**_

In addition, I may add a few bonus one-shots with your favorites characters in the Untold universe.

And just like I promised, here is the new chapter; with **_Chapter VII_** releasing on 4/17/2019

Like I mentioned in the last chapter. I already have the next four chapters completed and are currently being looked over by my Beta reminds me. Please show some love to my amazing beta reader A. Mitsuni in the comments for all of her awesome work and that she has done.

Seriously you guys have her to thank for the reboot, when I was seriously considering flat out canceling the whole thing, back when I was in my little rut.

* * *

**Reviews**

**_D3lph0xL0v3r: _**Kai isn't the only person in play, he's a cop not a politician. We will be exploring more the politics including members of the Neocon movement, once we focus a bit more on Sir Nighteye's Point of view scenes.

_**beingwithu:**_ Pretty sure this chapter will make you very happy then.

_**MyHeroFan398: **_All I say say is wait and see. ;D. But I think you'll be happy. Oh! And good job on your own fic lately. Sorry I haven't been able to comment much recently. I've pretty busy, but I will be dropping some reviews your way soon.

_**HankFlamion18:**_ Again it makes me so happy to see people enjoying the new chapters along with the update chapters. I have learned that I'm work much better as a not a _slow burn_, but better with a slower pace, but we will be picking up soon.

* * *

**Recommendation**

Seven Renny's... Fuck it.

_**_**ANYTHING**_**__**done by Seven Renny**_ gets a recommendation from me.

Good Lord. Seven Renny's work is just god-tier quality stuff.

Especially if you're an Izuocha fan.

Seriously go to their profile, pick a random fic and read it. They're all just amazing stories, with a select few being some of the most beautiful and emotional pieces, I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

(With a few fics even influencing this very story. I can't say which ones exactly for spoilers, but I'm sure you might be able to figure it out if you read them) ;D  
Anyway please check out their work. I know I'm cheating doing this, but that's just how good the work is.

You can find Seven Renny's work on FF and AO3.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_**

__**Saga I: Dusk**__

**_**Arc I: Origins**_**

**_**Chapter VI: What it means to be a Hero**_**

* * *

**_"The sky takes on shades of orange during sunrise and sunset, the color that gives you hope that the sun will set only to rise again."  
_**

**_-Ram Charan_**

* * *

Spring morning, and it was yet another day that Izuku Midoriya was on his way to Aldera Junior High School. Scrolling on the screen of his phone, holding a frown on his face as walked down street, nearly reaching the train crossing.

The anniversary of his father's death had just passed, and the tabloids were making their usual spiel and slander over the incident five years ago with the dangerous super villain, who still remained unnamed to this day. From rumors of secret love children, hidden affairs behind his wife's back, to more nonsense of that he went rogue and that the unnamed villain was just a cover up; only fueled the bitter resentment in his stomach and growing doubts in his heart.

Izuku's life was fairly hard, now being the only son of the deceased Pro-Hero who was labeled a disgrace due to the damages and loss of civilian life caused all those years ago. His father had stopped an incredibly dangerous supervillain, and his reward for his sacrifice?

His reputation destroyed and his own family left behind in an economic strain, abandoned and tossed aside by many of their so-called family friends. To this day, there were only a few people, like the Bakugou family, that stayed firmly by their side through the very worst of it all. No one at school knew truth of Izuku being the son of Draco Knight; obviously the only exception with Katsuki, who would never say a word to protect his friend, and the school's principal, who was thankfully an understanding man.

And now, it was even easier to hide the truth since Izuku hadn't been able to use his quirk since his father's passing. Several doctors who saw and treated Izuku determined that it was some sort of mental block he had somehow managed to place on himself, one so strong that he couldn't even activate his quirk by accident. While things have gotten better in the years.

To everyone at school, it seemed like Izuku was simply a quirkless kid.

A weak, worthless nobody.

However, being a nobody may have been just a bit better and easier to accept than being the son of a disgraced hero. At least then he wouldn't have as big of a target on his back by both the school and the general public.

But all of this only compounded the notion that he shouldn't be a hero.

**He lost his heart, and therefore was stripped of his armor unworthy of it.**

In spite of his quirkless-ness, he still continued his physical training. Maybe not to the degree he had used to do under his father, but enough that he had still maintained his physique and managed to develop quite a bit of muscle from it. He hoped that on the day that his heart would return, he would be ready.

_"RAGH!"_

A great roar reverberated as a man suddenly transformed into giant villain and began attacking the city, suddenly stopping Izuku dead in his tracks.

'_A legit supervillain?'_

No, not from the sounds of it, as the now giant man seemed to only be a petty thief, judging by what the crowd was saying was true. This scenario served only as an annoyance to the crowd of people around, now stuck in place rather than worrying about the threat the villain posed.

Izuku, on the other hand, was excited as it meant a chance to see the Pro-Heroes at work. And lo and behold, several heroes began from appearing out of the woodwork.

Pro-Heroes, like Death Arms and Backdraft, helped with the crowd control while the young, up and coming Kamui Woods had appeared to deal with the villain himself, much to the delight of Izuku and a number of fan girls nearby. Izuku couldn't help but wonder if Yuu or his cousin, Ryuko, could make short of work of the giant man.

"Assault, robbery, and illegal use of powers during rush hour traffic! You really are the incarnation of evil!" He could hear Kamui Wood exclaim, as a distant rumbling in the background was vaguely heard.

"Ah, there! His special move!"

"THE BINDING LACQUER CHAIN PRISON!" Izuku and Kamui both yelled out in unison, following the loud rumbling was abruptly getting closer.

"CANYON CANNON!" A familiar voice called out. A giant woman, as large as the city buildings next to her, lunged onward with a huge forward kick to the villain. She promptly knocked him out; stunning everyone in the crowd, and catching poor Kamui Woods off-guard as he left his special move unfinished. Izuku was completely stunned as he realized who that was.

_'BIG SIS YUU?!'_

She had mentioned that she would be making her own debut soon, but Izuku didn't know that it would be today!

_'Wh-what is she wearing…? Wait, IS THAT HER NEW COSTUME?!'_

Izuku's face flared up a fiery red upon seeing the rather appealing, skin-tight outfit that hugged her curves quite generously. The fleshly, light peach color she chose was _definitely _not helping with his imagination.

"Piece of cake for the next hottest hero! Hi everyone! I'm Mount Lady, and you all don't have worry about this _bum _anymore!" She said while posing and winking to the crowd. Izuku was mentally face-palming himself, but did start taking notes on what he just saw. Notes that may or may not have included a small comment on her sexiness in that skin-tight suit. He also made additional note to update his older entry on Yuu from when she was still an intern/side-kick.

_'Oh she changed her codename! God, I hope Kacchan never reads this.'_

"Money shot, money shot, money shot!" Chanted a group of men with cameras taking pictures from below her, appearing suddenly and creeping Izuku out.

Izuku then saw Yuu shrink down to make her report to the police and allow the flow of the morning traffic to return to normal. He felt pretty satisfied upon seeing all these heroes in action and perhaps, maybe not now but someday, his own heart would prove him worthy to be alongside them in the future.

But that was a thought for another day, as Izuku continued his way to school.

The bell rang signaled the start of the school day, and Izuku had barely made it into the classroom on time. In all fairness, he would've had a valid excuse if he didn't. He took his seat near the center of the classroom, as his homeroom teacher had finally gotten the assessment sheets over viewing possible future careers after graduation.

"As third-year students, you all need to consider what you all want to do with the rest of your lives... but who am I kidding? Eh, I know you all want to go to the hero course!" He exclaimed and launched the sheets in the air as the classroom, with the exception of two students, broke out their quirks.

"Now, now I know you're all excited, but cut it out," The teacher was bemused at his students' actions, "You know you all aren't not allowed to use your quirks in class."

"Hey teach, you got the info I wanted?" A voice called from the teacher's right side. Katsuki Bakugou was leaning back on his desk with a smug look on his face.

"UA High is the only place that me and Izuku are planning on attending, so don't you dare lump us in with the rest of these losers!" He laughed when his comment would cause the class to break out in a fit of rage against both Izuku and Katsuki.

"You think you're hot shit, Bakugou?!"

"You know UA has only, like, a point-two percent acceptance rate, right?!"

"You think we're the losers? Hah! Midoriya doesn't even have a quirk!"

At that comment, Izuku felt himself shrink in his chair. Katsuki was quick to take notice of Izuku's reaction to that biting remark, and was quicker out of his chair with a glowering, heated expression. He popped a few explosions from his left hand, silencing everyone with his anger clear in his eyes for all his classmates to see.

"Listen here, you little shits! Izuku does have a quirk! One _way_ better than all of yours, and more than good enough to get into UA! If you all just _knew_ who his fa –"

"_Kacchan!"_

Izuku finally stood up, visibly in tears.

He didn't want anyone to know about his relationship with Draco Knight, especially not with all the awful crap the news was pouring in right now during his memorial week. This caused Katsuki to freeze up, realizing what he nearly done.

'_Ah, shit. I fucked up.'_

"Anyways! We're going to UA and that's all that matters!" Katsuki quickly recovered, "I aced the mock tests, and Izuku isn't that far behind me."

His words having an air of finality to them, a warning to the class not to push it. He was angry on how his classmates treated Izuku, but he was even angrier at himself for almost blowing his cover. Izuku knew that Katsuki didn't mean for that to happen, but he couldn't help but to be a bit annoyed with his explosive friend. Fortunately for both of them, the teacher took over and class continued as usual for the rest of the day.

The school bell rang hours later, marking the end of the school day. Izuku was starting to feel better, and even took the chance to look over the hero news for extra details on the incident earlier in the morning that he could have missed out on to add to his notebook.

When Katsuki came up to his desk, Izuku looked up to see a rare, apologetic face on his friend.

"I'm sorry for earlier, man."

Izuku smiled. They were brothers in all but in name and blood. Katsuki missed his former mentor, the man he would call "Uncle Hisashi" on occasion. And in spite of his short temper, Katsuki was only trying to stand up for his friend.

"Don't worry about it," Izuku answered back, "I know you didn't mean it."

He could see Katsuki's face relax, and even turn with a small smile as well. Spotting Izuku's notebook, Katsuki knew that Izuku must have gotten some new information on a few pros on the way to school, which explained why he was almost late for class this morning.

Katsuki grabbed the notebook and began flipping through the new notes Izuku had just written down. After all, he was one of the few people who appreciated Izuku's insight on quirks and Pro-Heroes, as nerdy as it may be. Katsuki knew that if he truly wanted to be the absolute **Number One Pro-Hero**, then he would need every bit of information he could get his hands on that would give him the extra edge against the competition.

"Wait a sec, I wasn't finished..." Izuku hesitated, his voice dropping when realizing what he had written earlier.

'_Ah crap…!'_

Seeing the look of horror on Katsuki's face at the moment. Izuku already knew exactly what page he had just turned to; the page that featured his cousin now known as The Pro-Hero Mount Lady, who had just made her debut earlier that very day.

That's when he noticed that Katsuki had started retching.

_'And there goes him reading that bit about her sexiness...damn it.'_

Katsuki slowly lowered the notebook and stared at Izuku, his face completely unreadable as he gently placed it back down on Izuku's desk like as if it were made of fragile glass.

"Okay. We're even for today," He said as he tapped the cover of his notebook with his finger, "honestly, I should smack you over the head with this for having me see that with my own two eyes."

"Or better yet," a joking look crossed his face; "maybe I should let my shithead cousin know what you really think about her when she gets home later today."

"W-w-wait!" Izuku stammered, a blush rising on his face which caused Katsuki to break into laughter, "I didn't mean it like that!"

"I'm fucking with you, man," although his eyes narrowed and expression turned terse here;"seriously, I didn't need to read that today."

Izuku was still red from embarrassment. Damn his teenage hormones!

_'Why do the women in your family have to be so attractive!?'_

"Anyways, me and some of the boys are hitting up a new arcade that opened up down the road," Katsuki said, pointing his thumb at the two other boys who hung out with him. "Wanna come with?"

On a normal day, Izuku would've happily accepted the offer, but today he was assigned class monitoring and cleaning duty along with another classmate. On top of that, he wanted to get home as early as possible to get some chores done so his mother could just relax after returning from a long day's work.

"Thanks Kacchan, but I've got to clean up here first, and then get stuff ready for mom, you know?"

Katsuki understood, knowing well how hard it had been for Auntie Inko the last few years. He didn't blame Izuku for wanting to be there for her.

Hell, even _he_ had tried to help out on occasion, but when Auntie Inko found out, she would get a bit frustrated with him and stubbornly refuse his help. How she saw it, she felt like she was taking advantage of Katsuki, no matter how much he would say otherwise.

"Okay. We'll catch you next time then, alright?"

"Right."

Although he was the one to decline, Izuku hoped he hid the slight tone of disappointment in his voice as he saw Katsuki leave with the others. He did enjoy the times he is able to hang out with his best friend, with the odd exception here and there. Izuku's mind wondered off to the last time he had actively avoided Katsuki, which was when he got a girlfriend about midway into last year _much to Ryuko's faux tears _that Katsuki fell for much to the laughter of everyone else.

His girlfriend at the time was nice _-in public_. But she acted quite the opposite in private, or more accurately in the few times she and Izuku were left alone by themselves. It took little time for her to bully and belittle him behind Katsuki's back. Moreso, she was the clingy type, which left Izuku avoiding his best friend as he didn't want to end up being the sole reason for Katsuki to break up with her.

Luckily this charade didn't last long, as the moment he found out how much she was mistreating Izuku…man, did he let her have it in the cruelest way possible: _Marshmallow Treats on White Day.*_

Since then, this secured the idea that in the future, any girl with an interest in Katsuki meant that Izuku came along with the package, and this was _not_ up for negotiation.

When Izuku finished up with his classroom duties, he grabbed his bag and headed out the door. Aside from this morning's disruption, today had been uneventful so far. Or at least, so Izuku had thought.

About halfway home, he crossed through a tunnel underneath an overpass when he heard something _slimy_ splatter behind him. Before he knew it, he was suddenly accosted from behind by what appeared to be a strange man, carrying a mutant quirk with his whole body made of sludge. Caught off-guard, Izuku struggled to get free as the villain began making assurances towards him

"Relax kid, you'll only suffer for about a minute or so."

'_Damnit! I can't fight back!'_

"I need to make this fast before he catches up!"

'_Someone was chasing him?' _Izuku continued to thrash about in the thick muck,_ 'I hope they'll be here soon!'_

"Thanks kid, you're a real hero to me," he heard the voice gloat mockingly.

Izuku froze and a ball of anger suddenly brewed inside him, an unfamiliar sensation in his stomach began to rise. Almost like a burning hatred.

'_Don't you dare…'_

The slime was suddenly caught off guard, as a manhole cover shot up and a large figure appeared.

"What the hell?!" He exclaimed.

**"_TEXAS SMASH!"_**

A mighty voice roared, and Izuku was quickly freed once the sludge man splattered everywhere by a mighty force. A force so strong, it was enough to knock Izuku out cold when he hit the ground.

"Hey, hey, hey! Kid, wake up!"

Izuku **stirred** for a moment before coming to, eyes slowly opening as he could feel someone tapping away at his left cheek. Through the slits of his eyes, he could see that familiar blond hair and huge frame of All Might. He blinked a few things, just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"Come on kid, I'm on a tight schedule!" He said, although the hero's trademark smile did not waver.

Izuku's eyes snapped open wide upon realizing he really was seeing All Might, in the flesh, before him. Out of sheer surprise in finally meeting the idol that he and his father had respected for so long, he started backing away with a shriek and his heart racing a mile a minute.

"HAHAHA! Thought we lost you there, my boy!" All Might started with a boisterous voice; "but thanks to you, I've managed to capture the villain!" He showed off the two bottles of soda that was now filled with the sludge villain from earlier, before he tucked the bottles away into his pockets of his cargo pants.

Izuku went up, about to ask him for an autograph, when he realized that he had already signed his notebook he had dropped earlier on the final two pages.

"Th-thank you! Thank you so much, All Might!" Izuku yelled out while bowing furiously before All Might, who merely gave him another thumbs up. "This is will be an heirloom, a family treasure to be cared for and passed down through the generations!"

"You're welcome kid! It's always great to have fans such as you!"

"Stay out of trouble! I'll see you around!" All Might turned around, stretching his legs before preparing to take off into the air.

Izuku paused his bowing for a moment, now realizing that this was his chance. A chance to possibly get that spark in his life. To have his heart, the heart of a real hero back. Despite the mental block in his head and the hole left in his heart, he thought the hero he and his father always looked up to might give him some ounce of hope and redemption he so desperately needed.

Except All Might was in a hurry, so that chance was about to leave him and Izuku could only think of one possible solution.

**_As stupid as it was_**

"I'm taking off! Thanks for your continued support!" All Might said as began his jump, not realizing the addition to his person until he was already several feet up in the air. Izuku was now clinging desperately to his left leg, doing his best not to let go and fall to his death.

"HEY, HEY, NOW! LET GO OF ME!" All Might exclaimed as he tried to pry Izuku from him midair, "I LOVE MY FANS, BUT THIS A BIT TOO MUCH!"

"I CAN'T!" Izuku answered back, albeit garbled in the face of high-speed winds. _"IF I LET GO RIGHT NOW, I'LL DIE!"_

"OH!"

All Might realized the poor guy had a point.

He told Izuku to keep his eyes and mouth shut as he quickly searched nearby for a roof to stop on. Once he navigated to a safe place to drop the boy off, he soon began to feel the now familiar metallic taste of blood drip from his mouth.

_'Shit.'_

When All Might descended back onto solid ground, he failed to notice that the bottles containing the sludge villain from earlier was no longer in his pockets. On any other day, All Might would have scolded Izuku for his actions. However, when he landed both safely on the roof of a nearby building, he was cut short by his time limit nearing its end.

"Not a very smart move. Bang on the door for a while, someone will let you in," he spared the small talk and made to his leave quickly. "Now! I really have to go."

All Might made his way to the edge of the roof's railing, brushing off Izuku's protests. He was about to leave when heard Izuku suddenly yell out.

"Can one really be a hero, even if he is the disgraced son of one?!"

All Might paused, then turned to face Izuku. The realization quickly dawning on him upon looking at the boy's face and features, only to realize that who he really was.

_'Draco Knight's son?'_

"Can even someone so disgraced...be like you?!"

Izuku continued talking, as All Might was distracted, deep in thought.

_'No... it can't be... running into him after all this time?'_

"Urk!" All Might suddenly coughed. His time had finally run out.

_'No! Not now, damn it!'_

The steam now escaping his body, his body painfully shrinking back down to his true form.

"For the last few years since my father died, I've felt like I've lost my will to be a hero. He died protecting people, but now they all hate him!"

Izuku continued, his head bowed and eyes closed shut as tears ran down his face. The truth was finally released, and he couldn't even bare to look at All Might once he blurted it all out.

"My family has suffered, and yet…I still want to be a hero. I…I'm just so scared that one day... I'll wind up like him, and that scares me! _It scares me to the point I can't even use my quirk anymore!_"

Izuku couldn't stop the words from tumbling out of his mouth. He had held this in, all the grief and insecurities bottled up for so long. He tore down the walls in his heart and bore his soul before the very hero that inspired both him and his father. His dreams, his prayers, his everything were all riding on All Might telling him the words he needed to hear.

"Is it normal for me to feel this way?! To have doubts like this?! When I can't bring myself to even smile like you, or be brave like you?!"

When greeted with silence, Izuku finally opened his eyes to look at All Might, hoping for his answer after all this time.

Only to see the skinny, weak form of All Might.

And the horrified shriek that followed was so loud, it could have been heard by Hisashi from beyond the grave.

* * *

Katsuki stood still rather unexpectedly, as he swore that he just heard Izuku's loud cry at that very moment.

"Yo, Bakugou? You alright there, buddy?" Asked Ushio, or as Katsuki preferred to call him, 'Fingers.'

Kastuki blinked and shook his head, snapping out of his funk. He shrugged it off, maybe he was just hearing things.

"Yeah, Fingers, I'm good," he said with sighed; believing it was just his imagination.

The trip to the arcade had been a bust, since the owner closed shop earlier due to some villain breaking into a nearby store and the police had closed off the whole area to hold an investigation. The three boys loitered around for a while in the hopes for it to reopen, before confirming that all that time they wasted as indeed for nothing.

"You know, we could go down to the bar and maybe find some easy prey..." The other boy, Shiro, suggested with a smug smirk.

That was a mistake.

"Don't you dare say dumb shit like that, moron!" Kasuki hissed, "_**Easy Prey? **_You dumbass..."

As much as he reasoned to himself that he did not need any more misdemeanors to get in the way this close to applying for UA, Katsuki wouldn't ever be caught doing sleazy actions like that. He would never do anything that would have made All Might or Hisashi look at him with shame.

Shiro stood quiet after that exchange and the trio continued their trek, taking a shortcut through an alleyway. They passed by a small child that seemed to have a telekinetic quirk, as he lifted and placed both trash and recyclables into their proper bins. At a passing glance, Katsuki couldn't help but have a ghost of a smile upon followed shortly by feeling a cold sting of guilt. How many times had Hisashi offered to take him to do volunteer work? And how many times did he decline?

**All of them.**

And here, this kid was doing just that without prompt. Katsuki wondered if Izuku had been born with Auntie Inko's quirk instead of Hisashi's, that he would most likely be doing stuff like this for hero training. The trio walked on by and left the boy alone, only for Katsuki to stop in his tracks the moment he heard it.

A hard thump and the sound of heavy liquid sound rushing out was followed by a helpless scream.

All three boys whirled around, and before anyone else could do anything, it only took Katsuki one second to realize that was going on before rushing headfirst into action. He could see a slime creature had already grabbed a hold of the boy, and judging from the slime trail on the ground, the empty bottle nearby must have been containing the monster before it was released.

Using the most amount of blast he could use without hurting himself or his two companions, he managed the grab the outstretched hand of the little boy with his right hand and began using his left to both blast the slime away and help him pull the boy out of the sludge.

Katsuki knew the minute he would free the boy meant that he, in turn, would fall prey of the sludge villain. No matter, he continued to fight back relentlessly as he felt the fingers on his left hand begin to blister.

"FINGERS!" He screamed at the two, "GET READY TO GRAB HIM!"

With the sludge already trapping his legs to pull Katsuki in, he knew it was too late for him.

_'Shit! Better me than him!' _He thought with one last burst exploding from his left arm, he pulled the boy out and threw him out to the two others. Ushio using his quirk to widen his reach caught the boy in midair, the new trio however froze on what to do next.

"RUN, GODDAMN IT!" Katsuki screamed out before the slime began to overtake him, "RUN!"

_'Damn it! Go, damn you...!'_

* * *

Izuku stopped his screaming, only to start throwing various accusations at the skinny man now in front of him of being a fake, an impostor.

The skinny man simply sighed.

"Hold on boy, I can assure you that I am All Mig –ugh..." a trail of blood dripped down from the edge of his mouth, causing Izuku to scream again.

"How?! How could this be true?! The man – no, _the_ _hero_ that my father and I admired for so long be like this? All Might is supposed to be a giant of a man who saves everyone with that same fearless smile..." His wavering voice began dropping off, his worldview shattering like glass.

"Young man, please whatever you do, please don't go around telling anyone about what I am about to show you."

"What do you me – AH!" Izuku started before seeing the body horror before him as the skinny man slowly lifted his shirt.

His body was mangled and bruised, almost twisted in some places.

"I got this from a nasty fight five years ago. My respiratory system was damaged beyond repair, and I've practically lost my whole stomach...I can't be fixed...Now I can only be _'All Might' _for a few hours a day. Otherwise, this is me now..." All Might drifted off, now remembering exactly who he was talking to.

_'OH…SHIT!'_

"Wait..."

_'OH FUCK!'_

"…was it that fight with Toxic Chainsaw?"

_'Phew…!'_

"No, that punk did land a few hits on me, but..." All Might stopped himself and debated on telling the boy the truth.

Even years later, he still had a gag order placed on him when it came to the All for One fight. He knew that if there was anyone who truly deserved to know the truth about what really happened five years ago, it was this boy and his mother of all people. He thought long and hard about the what the young man had just now told him. Then there was the investigation, which was still ongoing, Kai and political allies proved to be a slippery bastards.

_'He has doubts.'_

"Don't worry about it, kid. Look, about your previous question before… I just need to confirm something first. You're Draco Knight's boy, aren't you?"

Izuku flinched. Of course, All Might would know about his father after all. The mere mention of his father was enough for him to forget about asking for more details about the fight that crippled All Might. Izuku simply couldn't bring himself to lie to him.

"Y-y-yes. I'm Izuku Midoriya, son of Hisashi Midoriya, the Pro-Hero Draco Knight," Izuku used to be able to say those words with pride, but now they always sounded like hollow and empty words to him. Those very words haunted him for the last five years.

"I thought so," All Might began, "I didn't know your father very well. I knew he was a good man, a good hero, but…I think if he saw how you were acting right now, _he would surely be ashamed of you._"

* * *

At the very moment, unbeknownst to All Might, his mentor Gran Torino felt a chill run down his spine as he waited for his plate Taiyaki to heat up in the microwave. Somewhere out there, he had a feeling his former student was saying or doing something incredibly stupid right now.

* * *

All Might knew these words would sting, but he hoped, or at least intended, it would motivate Izuku to shape up his act. It was how Gran Torino dealt with him and got him going, and surely it would work on the boy as well. Yet one look at Izuku crushed, shaken spirit immediately brought a sinking feeling in his chest.

_'Oh shit...'_

The tears that spilled down Izuku's face spoke everything to All Might.

He fucked up.

All Might knew that he truly fucked up at that moment.

However, he also knew that saying anything else now could possibly make things worse. All Might, fortunately, now knew his name and finding him later wouldn't be too difficult. He steeled himself to finish the job he needed to do and turn in the villain from earlier. He reasoned that he would make it up to the boy later; that is, until All Might felt the inside of his pocket only to realize it was empty.

The bottles were gone.

_'Oh…oh shit, the bottles!'_

"I'm sorry to end it like this, young man. But I do need to get going," All Might abruptly ended their conversation in a hurry, already racing down the stairs as fast as he could, "I have turn in the villain from earlier. We will talk again soon."

Izuku didn't even catch that last part due to his crying. He didn't allow the sobs to escape until All Might was safely out of earshot.

To say Izuku was completely shattered was very much an understatement. To Izuku, All Might had confirmed the worst of all his fears. He was unworthy of his father legacy, he was unworthy to use Dragon Shift. Who else would know better than All Might?

He was unworthy to be a Hero, and he was nothing but a shame to the family name.

He had hoped, all he had hoped, was that All Might could put him at ease. That his feelings where normal, that it was okay to have such doubts.

That it was okay to feel lost.

_No,_ these feelings weren't normal, these weren't the right feelings for a proper hero to have. No, these were the feelings of someone weak, a coward unworthy to be a Hero, unworthy to be a Knight.

One unworthy of being Draco Knight's heir.

Izuku knew that he couldn't stay at the rooftop forever as he tried to wide away his tears. He needed to get home get everything ready for his mom. He could cry again after that, he was ready to give up. He was unworthy after all. Unworthy of going to UA. Unworthy of anyone. Unworthy of being a Hero. As he began to walk down the stairs, his thoughts drifted. How would everyone else react?

His mom would she be disappointed? After all her sacrifices?

Katsuki, would he abandon him now? After planning for so long to go to UA together?

His cousin Ryuko, would she be mad? That he couldn't live up to the family legacy?

All of his fears, the darkness that weighted on his heart. It was beginning to drive the poor boy insane. That bitter, helpless anger from earlier at the pit of his stomach was returning.

_'I'm a failure.'_

When Izuku finally made it to street level, he could hear the sirens blaring and the sounds of explosions from a distance.

_'An accident?'_

Years of being the hero fanboy that he was, Izuku unknowingly followed his habit of arriving at the scene instead of heading home as planned. He didn't realize where he was until he was among the crowd of people viewing the attack. Nearby, a child was heard crying.

'_Wait, how did I get here? I'm supposed to be going home,' _Izuku thought, ready to turn around and leave, _'...being here is pointless.'_

That was until he saw it. The Sludge Villain from earlier, the very same one that nearly captured him from under the overpass.

'_Wait? HOW?!'_

The memory from earlier when he grabbed onto All Might's cargo pants flashed through his head.

'_No... the bottles, when I grabbed All Might! I must have knocked them out!'_

Izuku was already feeling horrible, his mind was still in complete flux between blaming himself and All Might's words. He could feel the anger and guilt reaching a boiling point.

Just out of Izuku's view, All Might was just a few feet behind the back of the crowd. Little did he know, All Might, too, hung his head low and quietly blamed himself for his self-proclaimed idiocy in dealing with the Sludge Villain and Izuku just moments ago. Meanwhile, other Pro-Heroes were already at the scene, struggling to gain the upper hand on the Sludge Villain as well as control the growing fires within the alleyway.

"I heard from the other Heroes that the sludge guy captured some kid," someone from crowd spoke out.

_'What?!' _Izuku snapped out of his reflections. He didn't even realize there was another victim in front of him.

"And that's not even the worst of it!" Another bystander added, "I heard that All Might was after him, but I don't see any sign of him!"

To his horror, the crowd around him starting to rip on All Might.

_'No…! They're blaming him for my mistake!'_

Then, Izuku felt a rumbling, a very familiar rumbling coming from the ground.

"Hey, look!" called a young girl from the crowd, "That new hero from earlier, Mount Lady! She should be able to help!"

_'Big Sis Yuu...'_

That's when it happened. The moment when everything in Izuku's world stood still.

"Katsu!" She screamed, seeing that her cousin trapped by the villain grasp. She reached desperately to save him, but her large frame prevented her from getting close. "Katsu, just hold on!"

Izuku stood there his eyes widening, his pupils shrinking. There was only one person that Yuu ever referred to like that.

_'No...no please no, not him!'_

Heart in throat, Izuku pushed past the people in the crowd and forced his way towards the front, praying that he was wrong.

_'NO!'_

His worst fears confirmed, it was Katsuki trying his damndest to resist the sludge villain from overtaking him as he continued to fight the sludge off from forcing himself into his own mouth and body. When he heard his cousin's voice, his eyes searched through the packed crowd. And for a brief moment, his eyes locked onto Izuku's. He knew exactly what that idiot was just about to do.

_'No... Izuku, no!' _Katsuki pleaded in his thoughts as he saw his best friend's face, _'Get away now! And don't you dare get close...!'_

In an instant, Izuku dropped his backpack, then jumped over the protective railing that stood between the villain and the crowd, his legs running before he could even think. Everyone, both pro-heroes and civilians alike stood in shock with what happened next. Even Yuu didn't realize who had broken through the crowd until he was already out of reach.

"IZU!" She shrieked, cracking the edges of the buildings on both sides of the alley in her desperate attempts to grab him, while burning herself from the heat of the flames.

It was all or nothing now.

He had enough. He could deal with the shame upon his shoulders and his shattered dreams, but he would be _damned _if he let his friend, his only real friend, suffer because of his mistakes.

"STOP, YOU IDIOT!" Izuku could hear Death Arms yell at him as he sprinted past, "YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED!"

All Might couldn't help but stare at the boy as well, shocked at what he saw.

_'That boy... I… I truly am an idiot.'_

All Might knew he needed to act as well, no matter the cost of his own body and will. But this boy, one who couldn't even use his own quirk, was answering the call.

_**The one only a real hero will always answer, when the chips are down and the dealer named life calls in.**_

As Izuku ran hard against the fires, a warm feeling coursed through his veins and ran through his body; a feeling he hadn't felt in the last five years.

"YOU AGAIN?!" The Sludge yelled out upon seeing Izuku running towards him, "YOU WERE TEASE BOY, AND I'M NOT ONE FOR PLAYING GAMES!"

All Izuku could feel was anger at the villain, and for his own idiocy and cowardice...though, this time, his rage now had a laser-focused point, one directed straight towards the villain.

"Games?!" Izuku screamed back, "THEN NO MORE GAMES!"**

There was a large blinding flash of light that left villain was temporarily stunned, reeling back in pain and allowing Katsuki a chance to escape. Using this chance while Katsuki was being pushed out, Izuku's arms and legs had shifted with shiny emerald scales just barely hidden under his sleeves that provided him just enough force to dive into the sludge, grab Katsuki by the arm, and come out the other side.

Izuku couldn't believe it as saw the familiar sight of his shifted limbs that had torn through his uniform and shoes.

_'N-no way... MY QUIRK IS BACK?!'_

Katsuki coughed hard for a moment, now finally being able to breathe and clear his airways after being trapped in the sludge for so long. He turned to his friend, getting ready to berate his friend for doing something so reckless when he suddenly saw that Izuku's Dragon Shift quirk was active again.

"H-how? Izuku, when the hell –"

"I-I don't know! It just happened!"

Before Izuku could explain, the Sludge Villain finally recovered behind them. In a vicious roar, he was about to ready another strike onto the two boys when a sudden, familiar voice called out.

_**"DETRIOT SMASH!"**_

All Might dropped out of the sky with a punch so strong, that slime creature exploded in a burst from the torrent of wind. It was a miracle the mighty smash didn't harm the crowd and pro-heroes within the area, as it even changed the very weather itself.

Unfortunately, the whiplash from the direct punch practically launched both Izuku and Katsuki into the ground. The raw strength of All Might was enough to knock the two boys out for a short time. There was another short flash as Izuku's limbs returned back to normal while unconscious.

It took no time for the pro-heroes to intervene, quick to capture the remnants of the Sludge Villain and tend to Izuku and Katsuki. When they awoke, they both were taken in for a quick check up by the medics nearby.

Yuu was furious at the two boys, if it hadn't been apparent by the hard smack she laid in on both their heads.

"Katsu! You little shit! You almost gave me a GODDAMN HEART ATTACK! AND YOU IZU! I THOUGHT YOU KNEW BETTER!" She screamed before pulling both boys into a tight hug, despite that the fact it stung her own burns from the fires. "Goddamn it," she continued berating them with tears running down her cheeks, "I don't want my first year as Pro to have bury you two idiots."

It was clear on both their faces that the boys did feel bad for adding to her stress level today. Even Katsuki with his usual glare didn't yell out his usual comebacks and kept his mouth shut. After all, it was one hell of a debut for the young heroine.

None of the other Pro-Heroes nearby said anything, making sure to give them their space after the whole incident. From what they saw, the two boys got enough of a scolding and surely did not need to push it further with Yuu there. Yuu also prevented any of the Pro-Heroes of asking either of them to consider future side-kick positions when they went pro, making it very apparent when one of the pro-heroes attempted to approach Katsuki.

"Katsu's ego is big enough already, I don't need it getting bigger," she would tell them, waving them off with angry scowl on her face.

After taking a deep breath, she wiped away the tears from her face. "Katsu, Izu, please just go home when you're ready. I'll make sure the press doesn't bother you on your way out," she finished with sigh, thankfully the press was much more preoccupied with All Might on the scene.

When all was said and done, Yuu walked the boys down a few blocks and kept to her word in warding off any reporters. When it came time to part ways, Katsuki headed home, telling Izuku that he will call him later to talk about what happened.

"Thanks for the save, man," he sighed, giving him one last look before walking away.

While his tired expression pressed Izuku to not bring this up again at school again, look in his eyes was genuine. It was a rare sight for Katsuki to admit gratitude, as he much preferring action over words, and for that Izuku simply smiled and nodded.

Izuku's sigh as he began walking back home; completely spent thanks to the sudden return and usage of his quirk that left him quite tired and hungry.

The same couldn't be said for his clothes, however; his uniform sleeves were torn up almost up to his shoulders, along his pants; exposing his legs up to the calf. The remnants of his red shoes and socks sticking in odd places. Thankfully, Izuku was given some simple flip-flop sandals by one of the other pros earlier on the scene, who thankfully had some spares on hand.

He remembered after thanking the pro-hero for the foot wear and made his move to leave, Yuu pulled him aside and gave him one more firm hug before heading back.

_"Izu, I don't want you to ever do that again, please. I would never be able to face your mom or Auntie Mitsuki if something happened to you on my watch," she had said with a gentle smile and squeezed his shoulder, "but for what it's worth, thank you. Thank you for saving my little shit of a cousin, who is lucky enough to have you as a best friend."_

Izuku could feel tears well up from Yuu's words as he continued to walk down the empty street, surrounded by the orange glow of the setting sun.

It felt good.

_**It felt so good to hear words like that.**_

If only All Might could have said those words he needed it, he would have felt even better. The insecure part of him want to deny Yuu's words, but in the end, he accepted them. He wanted to hold onto those warm words just a bit longer, words that made him feel like a hero, and the good feeling from today before giving up on his dreams.

His armor may have returned, but he still felt wrong, unworthy of using it. Yet as he walked on, believing to be alone, not realizing that he was being followed.

Izuku was nearly home when suddenly, out of the corner of the turn,

**"_I AM HERE!"_**

Izuku screamed nearly jumping out of his skin at the surprise appearance of All Might from the other side of the road.

"All Might! Why are you here?" Izuku looked around, hoping he wasn't being chased. "How'd you get rid of all those reporters?"

All Might simply laughed with a flex of his arms, "I stand for JUSTICE! Not sound bites!"

"Because I! I AM ALL MI –urk!" He started violently coughing, abruptly shrinking back into his skinny form.

The shock caused Izuku to shriek again, followed by several apologies to the man for his blunders his earlier and asking for forgiveness. All Might, to Izuku's surprise, would hear none of it. The setting sun behind the skinny man with petals falling from the nearby trees made for a strange sight before Izuku's eyes.

"Young man, I made a mistake. My words from earlier were wrong," All Might admitted. "I'm... I'm not the best person to speak about emotions. When you've been a Pro-Hero for as long as I have, it can make one blind to such important matters."

Izuku was about to respond in denial when All Might held up his hand and continued,

"First let me say this. The feelings of doubt you were having, especially after a hard day, a failed mission, or when you have lost someone dear to you, is perfectly normal for a hero to go through. I suffered them too, many times when I lost those who near and dear to myself as well."

Memories his master, Nana, along with various others throughout the years quickly ran through his mind. Izuku couldn't believe what he was hearing. Surely this wasn't happening, not after everything, especially not after his mistakes.

"Second, when I said that your actions would shame your father, I was wrong. You were lost boy who lost his guide, the guide you relied on to seek your dreams of being a Pro-Hero, correct?"

Izuku mutely nodded, unable to speak.

On their first chance meeting, All Might knew that this kid had massive potential in the future, as clearly evident with his writings in his notebook. If he attended UA's Hero Course within the next year or so, he could even be a candidate for One for All. If that were the case, he knew he would've easily told him the truth, a truth he desperately needed to hear. But at that moment on the roof, the boy was in no such condition.

If Izuku really couldn't even use his quirk due to the emotional distress, such a case being so rare, All Might assumed it had to be something bad. At the time, he thought about how he could try and motivate the young man, something to snap him out of his funk with the harsh words already on his tongue.

"I was raised on tough love... _very tough love_ being my guide in life."

All Might himself never really had great parents. It was mostly his master Nana and his mentor Gran Torino stepping in, and both had taught him almost everything he knew. However, the latter of the two was the who held onto a very firm belief in being that center of tough love.

"However, my boy, you needed a different approach. Something I wasn't able to give when you needed it the most. And for that, I am so sorry." He lowered his head with a small bow.

Izuku could feel himself getting lighter and his knees weaken. His eyes were burning again, but not out of sadness or anger.

"And finally," he said as he rose up, looking directly at Izuku's eyes.

"When no one else could do anything to help that boy, you stepped in. And despite my idiotic words that had hurt you, you did more than any of the other Heroes did. You stepped in to answer the call, inspiring me to act as well."

All Might could remember Hisashi all those years ago. That pro-hero fan boy who, in a heartbeat, took the blow that was meant for him. The deathblow that ended his life, and his dying words that remained with him to this day.

**"****_All Might! Please... fight on!"_**

"There are stories about every hero of how they became great. Most had one thing in common: their bodies moved before they had a chance to think, almost on their own."

Izuku had already knelt to the ground crying, clutching his heart.

"And today, that's what happened to you."

He let out a sob from deep in his chest, holding out onto hope one last time.

_'Please!'_

"Young man, you are more than worthy of being a hero. A hero worthy of being even greater than your father before you."

The darkness that had shrouded Izuku for the last five years was finally gone. Although, the tears of joy that ran down his face was enough to concern even All Might, who thought that the boy could end up dehydrated from all that crying.

Yet All Might wasn't done.

He had made another decision, perhaps the most important decision in his life. The decision his master had made for him so long ago.

This boy had earned it.

"And if you give me a chance, Young Midoriya, I feel you could be even greater than me."

"W-w-what?"

"Izuku Midoriya, I deem you worthy to inherit my power. My quirk is yours if you want it."

Izuku simply sat there on the road, his tears instantly stopping as he was doing his best to process what All Might had just said to him. All he could muster in the end was a simple,

"EH?!"

* * *

**Author's Commentary**

_*_**Marshmallow Treats on White Day**_. _Or proof that Katsuki Bakugou is a fucking savage: So most people in the US know how Valentine's Day works in...well the US, but traditions in other countries in this case: Japan. Have different traditions. Girls will give boys chocolates on Valentine's Day and boys will return the favor exactly one month later on a day called White Day.

I'm not expert on the subject, from what I understand what you give the person can show your standing with that person.  
Examples

On Valentine's day girls often can give two well-known forms of chocolate.  
Store bought "Friendship or courtesy" chocolate or Homemade chocolate that shows a much closer bond or desire. (It's not always romantic, but normally is.)

On White day boys are expected to return the favor to those they received chocolate from and the type of treat (which is far more varied than just chocolate)  
can signal their answer. Again these aren't universal, but are the common examples of responses.

Marshmallows basically means, _**"I'm not interested in you"**_. So basically Katsuki basically dumped his girlfriend who most likely gave him a really fancy homemade chocolate (Yes she did) Shit from what I understand, most girls would prefer not getting anything rather than get marshmallow treats on white day.

(I imagine because it takes effort to say fuck off, effort that we know Katsuki would be more than happy to do.)

_**NO MORE GAMES**__** _If you see this phrase, Izuku is about to kick some ass.

This is a direct reference to the Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 The Fafnir Knight. In the game the main character, gains the ability known as** "Force Boost"** which also holds the ability to use the** "Fafnir Transformation" **. When ever the option is used, a common phrase used by the character is "No more games!" before transforming and the standard combat ost changing into the transforming theme (WHICH IS KICKS ASS) a common joke in the Etrian Odyssey community for this phrase, is due to the low quality speakers on the 3DS the phrase could sometimes be misheard as "No more gays". So if you end up looking up the OST you may see that in the comments.

The original_** Chapter III**_ is now _**Chapter VI**_!

A few minor changes from the original, mostly just grammar corrections, but honestly there is very little one could build from the foundation of the opening to the series itself. As it was episode two of the anime when I got hooked, ended up crying my eyes out.

The next chapter is the original _**chapter IV**_ now as

**Chapter VII: Aftermath I**

While_** Chapter VIII**_ is another all new original. After that we only have two brand new original chapters, with the revamped old chapters and we will be all caught up.


	7. Aftermath I

I already have the next four chapters done. (One original and three revamped old ones) My beta reader is hard at work on it and I have already gotten started on revamping the reminder so if everything goes well, we should be right back from where we left off in the original, hopefully by next month. The next upload will be awhile but you guys know that I'm not stopping anytime soon.

* * *

**Reviews**

_**Ooobserver:**_ Again happy to see people enjoying the new and revamped stuff. And I was more than happy to recommend the story. (But I wouldn't call myself a high profile author but thanks for the compliment ) I did give dates that I was updating these chapters in batches until we get caught up to where we left off in the original.

_**Cieszesi Niezmiernie: **_All I can say without spoilers, is that there will be a small shake up with her development.

_**luisAM21:**_I'm a bit confused on what you mean. Izuku did get One for All in the original. So I don't know what you mean by_ "All Might didn't propose Izuku to have One For All in the older one" _Umm...yes he did and that was always going to happen. Hell I lost some favorites and follows in the original (and same for this version) for doing this.

_**D3lph0xL0v3r:**_ Kai is a cop who needs politicians to help him up the ladder. We will be getting a view of the ones who manage the Neocon movement so we will get to meet the ones who convinced Kai to screw over Hisashi and the reasons behind it as the story moves forward.

_**inFamousSlyMonkey:**_ Happy to see people enjoying it.  
**  
****_HankFlamion18:_** Work I am more than happy to put in, even if some people didn't. After this chapter is when we will begin to see some major shake ups even in the old chapters. So I do hope you look forward to that.

* * *

**Recommendation**

**_**Your Name?**_**_** by **___**Bakufan15**__

A telling of one the most amazing films of recent memory, with the My Hero Academia setting.  
Featuring my favorite ship.  
It's only eight chapters, but it's a good solid read.  
Available to read on FF and on AO3

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_**

__**Saga I: Dusk**__

**_**Arc I: Origins**_**

**_**Chapter VII: Aftermath I**_**

* * *

__**"Don't let others put thoughts into your mind that takes away from your self-confidence."**__

__**-Katori Hall**__

* * *

Inko Midoriya was exhausted.

She had a very long thirteen-hour shift at work and was ready to just get her things from the break room and head home to get dinner started. She hadn't changed much over the years, the exception being a few gray hairs here and there when she couldn't afford the budget to buy hair dye and a few small stress wrinkles that lined her face that she managed to hide with a tiniest touch of makeup she would allow herself to use.

While in the rather dull, tan-colored break room, she could hear the familiar catchy jingle of the commercial for Doctor Yama's recovery clinic reminding her of happier days. As she hummed the jingle that had proven to be meme-worthy shortly after it debuted a few months ago.

**"**_**We interrupt this broadcast for a breaking news report,"**_ The broadcast announced as the local news anchor appeared on the screen.

When the jingle was suddenly cut short and the local news broke, Inko stopped what she was doing. If it was a major villain attack in the city, she might need to take a different route home. After a small bow toward the camera, the anchorman began speaking.

_**"Thank you everyone for tuning in, as we do have an update on the local robbery that had happened earlier this afternoon. The unnamed villain was finally apprehended by All Might in alley in Musutafu earlier today. The villain had taken a small boy hostage earlier but was rescued by another boy in his teens."**_

The picture flashed on the TV screen, causing Inko gasp upon seeing Katsuki's face.

_**"While the boy's actions are brave, we must warn viewers that situations like this are best handled by professional heroes."**_

Inko reached for her phone ready to call Mitsuki, her best friend and Katsuki's mother, until she heard the rest of the news broadcast.

_**"Another child, which we assume is either a friend or fellow classmate if his school uniform was any indication, was also on the scene of the attack. We do, in fact, have local video footage taken from various witnesses from the crowd. Again, we must **___**stress**___** that no one attempt, recreate, or re-enact the following actions, and leave the crime fighting only to professional heroes."**_

Inko just knew in her heart exactly who the newscaster was talking about, her fears confirmed seeing the scared face of her own son running into the fray.

"_IZUKU!"_ She screamed, having completely forgotten to call Mitsuki and began her sprint back home.

* * *

It had been one hell of a day for Izuku Midoriya when he finally arrived home. The first thing he did was take a quick shower and slip into a change of clothes to get rid of the smell from the sludge villain before starting on his daily chores. It had been complete roundabout of emotions today, reaching its apex with All Might on both times, yet the second time was his offer and revealing his greatest secret.

A quirk that can be passed down from one person to the next, **One For All**.

It was still something that was very hard for Izuku to believe or grasp, given everything that was supposedly known about quirks. But in the end, Izuku took the chance. He accepted All Might's offer immediately.

After a quick exchange of phone numbers, All Might gave Izuku two separate phone numbers. One for general calls, and the second to use only to be used in absolute emergencies. If he should use the latter, the names that they would refer to themselves as **'Eight'** and **'Nine'** respectively. All Might informed that he would contact him in a few days, and Izuku couldn't wait to see what All Might had in store for him.

When Izuku finished his chores, he finally realized just how hungry he really was. Not surprising, since Dragon Shift had always left him feeling drained when he was younger, and it had been years since he last used it. He sat on one of the couches in the living room to take a quick breather. Then Izuku took a chance to look at his right arm and focused.

**FLASH!**

His arm shifted into its clawed form, light green scales running down it.

Taking a good, long hard look at his shifted limb, he began moving it to make sure it was real. Moving each of his fingers, flexing them, balling his clawed hand into a fist then spreading it out.

All while pondering what finally made him regain his power after all this time.

_'Just how did I finally break my mental block?'_

Izuku didn't realize just how focused he really was, as he didn't even hear to the door unlock as his mother entered their home in a hurry.

"Izuku!"

Her loud cry made him jump off the couch with shriek, the rest of his body lightly shifting out with scales and spikes. His mother stood there, half-way caught between trying to reach her son for a hug and trying to figure out what she was seeing at the moment. Izuku's quirk was back there before her, an image she hadn't seen in years. Inko immediately broke out in tears and, very carefully, hugged her son. Izuku managing to return his body back normal and return her hug.

"I saw the news on the way here and saw what you did!" She cried, "reckless and idiotic!"

Izuku flinched with guilt. He was hoping to have his mom relax after a long hard day at work, but now just like Yuu, he only made her wind up making her even more stressed out due to his actions.

"I saw the video that was caught! You're just like your father. Oh, Izuku! I'm so proud of you! For saving that little boy with Katsuki!"

Her comment made Izuku freeze.

_'What little boy?'_

The only person he was aware of that was in trouble was Katsuki, though he made a mental note to look up the incident in more detail later. His mother continued speaking.

"And your quirk is back after all this time, how?!"

"I don't know, mom. But for the first time in ages... I feel better almost lighter, you know?" Izuku really couldn't quite explain it. Hell, he was still trying to figure it out for himself, but he wasn't complaining.

**_Growl_**

Izuku's stomach moaned loudly as it was painfully empty now. Inko couldn't help but laugh for a moment, remembering that Hisashi's stomach did the same thing after a really long, hard day of work.

"I'll get dinner started, and thanks for helping with the rest of the housework, Izuku. Go and rest for bit in your room, I'll call you up when I'm done!"

"Okay, mom," Izuku said in relief, now walking back to his room.

* * *

When Katsuki returned home later that same day, it was business as usual.

His parents or Yuu weren't home yet, so he decided to drop off his school stuff in his room quickly and took a shower mostly to get rid of the smell from that damn slime villain prick. When he was done, he saw his father had arrived and had already gotten started on making dinner.

"You okay there, Katsuki?" His father said upon seeing his son entering the kitchen to get a drink.

"Yeah," he answered gruffly, opening the fridge.

"I saw the news. I know you're not one to get into real trouble, but just be please careful, alright?"

Katsuki sighed. He knew that his father was worried about him and this was just his way of expressing it. Most likely it will be his mother that will berate the shit out of him when she gets home. A fact that was proven correct just an hour later, when they all sat down for dinner.

"YOU AIN'T A PRO YET, DAMN IT!"

"I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME, YA' OLD BAT!"

The four sat eating curry or more accurately, Masaru and Yuu were eating as the squall of swears, sass and backtalk continued between mother and son.

Of course, it was just another usual day in the house of Bakugou. But finally, when the verbal duel came to a draw, the two finally began eating their meals before it got too cold. Masaru tried to fill the silence by asking Yuu how her first day as a Pro went, the poor man didn't know that he had just lit the fuse to spark another fight.

"It went pretty well, caught a thief who could turn giant. And of course, there was the incident later in the day with Katsu here," she said, smirking at Katsuki's direction, "good thing Izu was able to pull his ass out of the fire before All Might stepped in!"

Katsuki, not wanting to back down from the challenge thrown his way, fired back.

"Why is this freeloader still living here again? Weren't you the one bragging about that nice flat you got near your office or some shit? Or did the landlord actually gain a brain and know better than to rent out your cheap ass?"

And with that, a new duel began.

"CHEAP ASS?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH IT COST TO SET UP MY AGENCY?!"

"I DON'T KNOW, BUT I DID SEE ALL THE NEW CLOTHES AND SHIT YOU GOT BEFORE YOUR _'BIG DEBUT!'"_

"THOSE ARE FOR BUSINESS, KATSU!"

"SUREEEEE, _BUSINESS_! I DIDN'T KNOW A ¥ 22,000* HAND BAG WAS SO FUCKING VITAL FOR HERO WORK!"

"WHY YOU!"

The two cousins glared at each other, the tension between them promising that a harsh throwdown could occur at any second.

"Please you two, stop fighting!" Masaru said, trying to calm the two down, all while Mitsuki sat back bemused, clearly enjoying herself, finding the chaos to be almost relaxing. It really was just another day in the Bakugou household after all.

Finally, Yuu did end up backing down with a sigh. She did come to regret some of her expenses due to the recent set of unforeseen circumstances.

"No, but really… I did have everything set up with the landlord and all. But that stupid law that passed recently caused an outrageous increase in insurance rates to cover any quirks that cause heavy collateral damage. It pretty much tripled the rent I would have to pay."

Yuu was referring to the recent law that the National Diet passed, all in part to a rising political movement that started gaining traction five years ago after the Draco Knight incident.

The "New Conventionalist," or otherwise known as the "Neocon" movement, who's core tenets focused on the increasing restrictions of quirk usage for the general public's well being. The ideology was flexible enough for political parties on both sides of the political aisle to find common ground, and lead with a strong majority within the lower house of the coalition.

In the case of those who were deemed to have "volatile" quirks that theoretically could do more harm than any possible good should be further restricted, to the point that its more fundamentalist members believe that they should be completely barred from certain careers in heroism and criminal justice. Some of the more extremist of this group even advocated "volatile" quirk users should be forbidden from even having children.

Thankfully, no laws passed have that gone that far yet.

"My quirk is now considered 'Volatile Class Three', so I still can rent downtown, but it's going to be way more expensive than what I can afford right now."

"Yeah, yeah, sure…" Katsuki dismissed with a wave of his hand.

"I wouldn't talk like that Katsuki, with your quirk and all," Mitsuki said before taking a sip of her drink, "You could end up on the volatile list, too. Especially with that temper of yours."

"They have already started psych evaluations for students entering the pro-hero courses throughout the country," Yuu added.

"And on that note, your evaluation is due in five months if you want to attend UA," Masaru injected as he finished his plate.

It was that last statement caused Katsuki to pause for moment and collect his thoughts. Looking back on it, he had never done anything that bad per se, the exception of a few fights here and there that _may or may not_ be on his record already, thanks to some assholes that had decided to pick on Izuku. His exclamations of telling his opponents to die as he fucked them up did not help his case, but in his defense, it wasn't like he actively bullied anyone or told someone to kill go themselves.

"Tch, I'm not worried about bullshit like that." He shrugged it off as he finished putting his utensils down, "thanks for the grub, I'm heading back up."

And with that, Katsuki left the table and headed up the stairs to his bedroom. When he turned on his computer and saw that Izuku was online, he realized it was high time for them to catch up on whatever the fuck he saw happen earlier.

* * *

Izuku was stuffed.

It wasn't often he was able to eat that much in a single sitting, but if it was just another sign that his quirk was really back, he wasn't going to complain. He was worried given how much his mom had prepared, but Inko brushed it off saying that Izuku was going to need the extra food if his quirk was back.

Once he was finished with dinner, he entered his room and took a seat by his desk.

He took a brief moment to look around his room. It was pretty bare bones, with most of his furniture being second-hand after the big move. There were only a few posters of All Might, and just one of his father's, decorating his walls. A few figurines of other pro-heroes lined his desk, one including his cousin Ryukyu when she made it to the Top Ten Pro-Heroes list, and an empty All Might-themed bento box from several years ago. Aside from it all, there wasn't much hero merchandise for one as big of hero fanboy as he.

Izuku wished he could have had more pro-hero collectibles, but he knew that his family was still in massive amounts of debt. Izuku had even sold a few of his own stuff without complaint, just to make sure that they had enough money to make ends meet. Which painfully included his Grandmaster's cross during the first year after his father's passing. His mother could only find work doing odd jobs here and there that barely covered rent, so selling his things wasn't too much of a loss for him.

After all, most of it was his father's merchandise, which had increased in value to collectors after his death. Disgraced or not, everything had been all signed by Draco Knight himself.

Such is the legacy of a hero.

The good news is that with him no longer feeling doubtful about his future pro-hero career, he would be able to start helping his mom soon enough. And soon enough, maybe finally start adding to his collection again and buy back everything he sold, no matter what. He owed it to himself and his mother.

Izuku got on his computer, one of the few items in his possession that was fairly new. It was birthday gift from the Bakugou family last year. And with that, Izuku logged in and began to look into what his mother had said earlier.

_"For saving that little boy with Katsuki!"_

He could have sworn that it was only Katsuki that was in trouble.

* * *

**Ping! – King Explosion Murder as logged in.**

* * *

And speak of the devil…

_'Well, who better to ask than from the man himself.'_

Before Izuku could even click the box to begin a text chat, Katsuki started a video chat.

* * *

**King Explosion Murder is calling.**

* * *

Izuku moved the mouse over to click and accept the call.

The video chat opened up with Katsuki, sitting in a Gendo pose; a meme, one of which survived since the time before quirks, was from a franchise that has lived through several remakes, spin-offs, three failed American movie productions, and one of the weirdest movies Izuku had ever seen. A movie that made him question if the original creators were on drugs when they made it.

**"Mr. Midoriya. Still in one piece, I see."**

Izuku knew instantly what this meant.

_'Oh, we're playing that game again, aren't we? Challenge accepted!'_

"Mr. Bakugou."

Katsuki grinned as he heard Izuku's reply, gauntlet had been thrown. The first one to make the other break loses.

"Still kicking I see, then again. I did save you, so I'm not surprised," Izuku said, sending the first jab aim for his pride.

_**"Only cause All Might came through in the end," **_He countered to reduce Izuku's importance.

"Only because you got caught," Izuku shot back, hoping to hit his ego.

**"Because I actually did something useful."**

Ouch! That one stung Izuku a bit.

"That's not what Yuu said," said Izuku before he realized that left a big opening. He fucked up.

**"Ah, speaking of which, I didn't interrupt you beating off to her right?"**

Izuku turned beet red upon remembering Yuu's costume and the notes he wrote earlier that day, causing his body to shift lightly and tear up parts of his plain white shirt.

Both boys went quiet for a moment to process what just happened. Izuku had just lost their little game.

Katsuki slowly began to laugh, following Izuku who started to laugh as well; both boys continued to laugh and laugh, until they completely red from the lack of air. Finally, Katsuki looked up with a rare warm smile on his face.

_"So, your quirk really is back in full force, eh?"_ Katsuki remembered when the mental block had started, and this was his way of confirming that Izuku's powers had indeed returned.

"Low blow, Kacchan!" Izuku said sheepishly, not bothering to change his shirt. He did make a mental note that he needed to get materials to sew it back together.

_"Wait, were you really? That fucked up, man."_

**"No!"**

Katsuki laughed out loud again.

"Hey now, I'm not the one with a thing for blondes."

Katsuki froze, his own face getting red as well when caught completely off guard from that remark.

_'I should have gone with that...for next time!' _Izuku thought to himself.

It had only a been a guess, given the similar hair color on every single one of Katsuki's previous girlfriends and not to mention the massive crush Katsuki had on Izuku's cousin, Ryuko, since he was eight years old. Izuku had a few guesses to what Katsuki liked, and blonde hair was definitely on his radar.

"Anyways Kacchan," he asked, "I heard from my mom that there was a little boy at the scene?"

Katsuki was still recovering with Izuku's unexpected remark, but the question did snap him out of it.

_"Oh that..."_

He looked away from the screen.

"Well?"

_"It was nothing special, that slime bastard was inside the damn soda bottle,"_ Izuku inwardly flinched with a bit of guilt, _"And that kid picked it up by accident. I'm not exactly one-hundred percent sure what exactly happened… But the next thing I knew, that bastard started his attack and I just moved to get the kid out by throwing him to Fingers. Played decoy while they got out."_

He lied about that last part, but Izuku didn't need to know that. After all, he had knowingly thrown himself into the jaws of the beast, caught with no chance to escape.

"Kacchan..."

_"Look, it was nothing special, alright?"_

"You saved a kid."

_"Heroes do that shit every day. I'd rather beat a villain before anyone needs to be saved."_

Well, that was Katsuki for you. Izuku knew that his best friend loved to boast about being strong and kicking ass. But when it came down to saving innocent lives? He would never brag about that. Had he managed to beat the Sludge monster by himself, he would be talking about it for days.

But saving a child?

**Never**

To him, it wasn't special, but expected for a hero to do so. Something too important to take lightly, too important to even brag about. The thought alone caused Izuku to smile, seeing Katsuki's softer side. But he also knew that this would most likely darken his mood to keep badgering him about it, so Izuku reached into his backpack to show him something that should perk him right back up.

"Oh hey! Kacchan, look what I got!"

Katsuki looked back at the screen expecting to see a new collectible or notes, but instead he saw All Might's full-page autograph in Izuku's notebook on the screen. Katsuki could feel the envy hitting him.

_"NO FUCKING WAY! When did you have the time to ask!?"_

"I didn't! He signed it when I was out cold!"

Technically speaking, Izuku wasn't lying to Katsuki. But he wasn't going to mention his first real encounter with either All Might or the Sludge villain; as much as he wanted to tell him what really happened today, it was better to play it off and keep that to himself.

In his head, Katsuki could tell something wasn't adding up to his story. Izuku was supposed to go straight home after clean-up duty, and that should have been done long before the villain ever caught him in the alleyway. Add this to the fact that Izuku's apartment was in the opposite direction, meaning something must had happened between that time for Izuku to change route.

However, Katsuki could also see the physical change in Izuku's face, his eyes shining with hope again and his smile wider. If something did happen, and if it was a reason for Izuku to return back to the person he used to be, he wasn't about to take this good thing for granted. Whatever happened somehow helped Izuku go back to his old self, so he accepted it without question.

_"Izuku…"_ He began.

Izuku looked at his friend on the screen.

_"I'm glad your quirk is back. Because now, I'll have you to keep pushing me forward."_

"I think you got that wrong, Kacchan."

Katsuki smirked at the sight of Izuku's confidence returning already.

"You're already so far ahead of me. I can't keep pushing you forward when I still need to beat and surpass you," Izuku said with a confident smile.

Katsuki leaned back in his seat with his smirk growing bigger, welcoming the challenge that his friend was throwing his way.

_"Okay, then. We've got ten months until the exam. We'll see just how far you to come and get to my level in that time."_

"Looking forward to it, Kacchan!"

With that, the two boys called it a night. Katsuki normally went to bed early and Izuku felt like doing the same; a rarity for the boy, but after everything that happened today, some extra rest wouldn't hurt. So Izuku simply hopped into bed, wondering when exactly All Might was going to contact him again.

It wasn't long before Izuku was deep asleep.

* * *

It was only a few days later when All Might finally contacted him again, telling Izuku to meet him at Dagobah Beach. When Izuku arrived to see All Might, he immediately saw mounds of the trash piled high everywhere. With one look of the garbage, Izuku knew instantly why he was there for, as his father had loved doing community service projects by following All Might's example. According All Might, it wouldn't take too long to be strong enough to accept **One For All**, thanks to Izuku's current level of physical fitness.

That alone was enough for Izuku to begin his training in the same gusto as when with his father.

It took seven gruesome months for Izuku to completely clean the beach, ridding the whole seaside bay of all the illegally dumped trash. It took quite some time and effort, on top of the rigorous endurance and strength training All Might assigned Izuku with his "All-American Dream Plan," but Izuku was more than willing to do whatever it took to be a worthy vessel. He went out every day to take out as much garbage and litter on the beach, hardly taking any days off from his training until everything had been cleared.

With Dagobah Beach all tidied up and cleaned, this gave him three extra months to spare before the UA entrance exam to practice and train with the new power he was about to receive, and to be able to work with it as his own. Little did he know just how important those three months were going to be critical for his development; to get used to this newfound power.

"Eat this."

All Might said with a straight face, all while handing him on of his own long hairs plucked from his head. Izuku stared at the hair strand in his mentor's hand for a few moments before saying,

"All Might...I'm a big fan and all, but I'm not that insane. I mean my dad was..."

"That's not! Just – look… in order to get my power, you will to need to process some of my DNA. That's how it works."

"_Th-that is not what I was expecting!"_

"_JUST EAT THE DAMN THING!"_

After three cans of juice from a nearby vending machine, followed by a few rounds of throwing up, Izuku finally managed to get the hair down. The poor boy sat on the concrete step, pale faced and clutching a half-drunk juice can in hand.

All Might knew it would be a while for the hair to process and digest, so he decided it was finally time to tell Izuku the truth. Not just about his father and the origins One for All, but about the about the other foe he may one day face in the future. He dreaded telling Izuku the truth about his father, knowing how hard the boy will take it. But now that he was well on his way of being his successor, Izuku deserved to know everything.

"Young Midoriya."

Izuku looked up at All Might. When he saw the serious look in his eyes, he knew it had to be something very important.

"Now that you've accepted my quirk, it's time I've told you everything. Including something I've wanted to tell you for years… ever since your father's wake."

It took a moment for Izuku to collect up his thoughts. Not long after meeting All Might and seeing his skinny form, Izuku had looked over some photos taken during the service. In one of the photos, he spotted the back of his familiar, weakened form.

"You really were there… weren't you?"

"I was."

"I thought I remembered seeing you, but you were in crutches…" It finally dawned on him, Izuku's voice trailing off when he realized the serious injuries All Might had sustained happened around the same time as his father's death.

"All Might… were you there?" All Might could already hear Izuku's voice beginning to break and the tears welling in his eyes. "When it happened…?"

"Yes. I was there that day. But before I tell you what happened that night…" All Might took a seat next to Izuku, anticipating how much he'll have to tell Izuku. "We need a bit of context to understand why everything happened."

He took a deep sigh before proceeding onward in a lesson in history, starting with the tale between two brothers that brought forth the origins of **One For All** and its' creator, **All For One**. He retold the line of successors who attempted and failed to defeat the villainous All For One, painfully including Nana, his master who came before him and passed the mantle of **One For All**.

"And so, nearly six years ago, a plan was devised to bring out All For One from hiding, in the hopes to taking him down once and for all. The operation was so critical that an 'Order Zero' was issued."

Izuku gulped down the knot that formed in his throat, knowing full well what that term meant. _**Order Zero:**_ defeat the villain at all costs; **lethal force was permitted**.

"Everything was going according to plan, as we were using the help of another criminal – a crime boss from the underworld who wanted out of that life... up until the whole building collapsed. To this day, the investigation team assigned still isn't one-hundred percent sure how it happened or who was responsible, or if it was All For One himself who was behind it to surprise us."

"No matter what...it did, however, seem to work in his favor, as he used it to launch his own counter-attack before we knew what had hit us," he continued. "Your father, and a few select number of pros and side-kicks alike, were brought in as reinforcements for crowd and damage control."

In a flash, Izuku remembered the last day he saw his father alive. Receiving that fateful call to the household in the middle of dinner, he said that he had been called up for a routine joint operation. But clear as day, Izuku remembered seeing just how nervous his father really looked; past his usual happy demeanor.

"In the end… I made a fatal mistake during the fight. And before I knew what had happened… your father took the hit that was meant for me."

Izuku couldn't even look up. He was visibly shaken to the core, unable to breathe.

"I managed to use that opening to counterattack, landing a smash that finally brought All for One to his knees. I carried your father to our evac team, but… it was too late. I am so very, truly sorry, young Midoriya."

It felt as if time stood still, every emotion he felt for the last six years finally coursed through him and flooded his head. Izuku remembered how the media – no, nearly everyone he turned to – had relentlessly placed the blame on his father. All those years, he repeatedly denied and refused those claims, but buried deep in his heart, Izuku always had that one fear. That fear that allowed the tiniest sliver of doubt to take root, one that always ate away at his soul.

'_What if it really was his fault?'_

'_What if it wasn't a cover up?'_

'_Could that very same thing happen to me if I was a pro-hero?'_

Suddenly, all he felt was shame. Shame that he even had those doubts about his father in the first place, as tiny as they were.

_**It really was all a lie.**_

_**In the end, his father really was innocent.**_

All the doubt and shame he held within himself were all signs pointing to the reason. The reason he hadn't been able to bring forth his quirk until recently.

_**It was all rooted in fear. Fear of his own destructive power.**_

He must've rationalized that if it really had been his father responsible for all the damage and civilian loss, then it was possible for him to do the same thing someday. It all made sense now… the mental block Izuku had placed on himself really was all to protect others from him. To keep him from hurting those he cared about.

In an instant, the vice-like grip of shame lit aflame, the rage he hid from the world exploded from his chest.

"Wh-why… _why is he still getting blamed?!" _Izuku didn't even realize his trembling voice had rose to a shout, the bitter tears pouring down his face. He didn't intend to have his anger to get the better of him, but at this point, he couldn't help it from happening. _"HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!"_

All Might wasn't surprised to see this, as he braced for his reaction and didn't blame the poor boy one bit. Nearly six years of lies and deception that ruined his life and wrecked the reputation of his family name. He calmly answered back.

"There was a special committee that formed, as it happens after every major operation regardless of the outcome. At the time, I was still under surgery, and could do nothing when one man decided to pin the operation solely on your father."

A wave of shock washed over Izuku. It had been just one man who had singlehandedly crushed his father's legacy, one man responsible for his mother having to work so hard to pay off the reparations, one _single_ man who had destroyed any peace left in their lives.

"WHO IS HE?!" Izuku demanded.

"Kai Doumeki."

He blinked for a second, racking his brain at the familiar name.

"No…" He faced All Might in disbelief, "The Chief-Superintendent?"

"The very same. Although, he was a Section Chief at the time; his promotion to Chief-Superintendent was thanks in part of by the rising Neocon movement that gained power, using your father as an example."

That same, hot anger was all Izuku could feel at that very moment, surging through his veins and clenched fists. He remembered when the Neocons began to gain traction in the political world from the news. He already opposed many of their current policies, one of which the possibility of restricting potential hero course candidates.

"The committee had already made a decision on what the truth was. Regardless, once I recovered and was able, I had confronted Kai and other key members of the committee who had initiated a gag order to shield the truth from the public. Unfortunately, the timing was against me, as they had already been empowered by the new government establishment. One lesson you must learn, young Midoriya, is that as a Pro-Hero, you are considered a civil servant. Caution must be taken in regard to politicians."

Izuku was fully aware of this, as hard of a pill it was to swallow. He couldn't blame All Might for his lack of action done; if those responsible could ruin his father, they could easily ruin anyone, and All Might was far too important as the figurehead upholding the peace. He needed to keep society safe and swore to defeat anyone who would dare rise up to the challenge to take that away.

Izuku couldn't even think of revenge, as that would just play right into their hands. And with his father watching over him, he would be disappointed at Izuku for straying far from the ideals of a real hero.

No.

He would go to UA, and by his own actions, rise to become a great hero like both his father and All Might. Maybe on his own, he won't be able to clear his name, but just the confirmation that his father wasn't the true cause of all the destruction solidified his aim to overcome the odds and become a pro-hero, one his father would be proud of.

"Young Midoriya. Please, forgiv –"

"No, All Might. You're not at fault," Izuku took a deep shuddering breath, then dried his tears. "We can't change the past, but I can look towards a future. A future you helped give back to me, a future you entrusted me with. I won't throw that away. I don't... I don't think my father would want to me to be so selfish."

All Might smiled. No doubt he had made the right choice.

Unknown to Izuku, All Might had already set plans in motion to help clear Hisashi's name. They had really gotten some decent evidence and thanks to Sir Nighteye's election into office a year after the group was formed, they had slowly manage to begin piecing the mystery bit by bit.

But for right now, he kept that to himself, as he only wanted Izuku to focus on being a Hero. And since All Might was already on borrowed time, he would use the remaining time he had left to ensure both the father gets justice for the past, and for the son who would dispense justice in the future.

With that, he stood up alongside Izuku, proudly putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Alright then, Young Midoriya. Let's get back to work to make that future a reality."

* * *

**Author's Commentary**

¥ 22,000* Approx. $200 US around the time of writing.

One of my original fucks ups, was that some people thought that Neocon, was short for "Neo Conservative"  
Which was not my intention at all. This is an ideology that is meant to bridge divides on both sides of the aisle.

Like I mentioned earlier, expect to see some real changes to the story from here on in.

_**Chapter VIII: Training**_** days** Will be out as soon as possible.


	8. Training Days

I have returned and boy do I have the updates to back up my return.

I first must admit that, I have no idea where my Beta reader is again at the moment. I last spoke to her last Monday when I handed in the last batch of chapters. I know that she has been very busy and I don't want to rush her, but I do want to keep this story going, so for the time being I will be forgoing my use of a Beta reader for the time being.

I have 12 chapters to upload...No I am not joking I am about to spoil all of you guys in light of your patience with me, I will be uploading every three days, and by the end I hope to have **_Chapter XX_** completed which is the newest chapter that will lead to the USJ, I hope you look forward to how I do things, because I am a train going full speed a head. **_Chapter XIX_** is confirmed to be last revision of the original version.

(Update: 5/20/2019: Gold Beta reader version now active.) Details in **_Chapter IX_**

* * *

_**Reviews!  
**_  
**_To everyone who simply gave me complements:_** Thank you all.

_**To everyone concerned about the guy who got on my case:**_It is over and done with. It's behind me and lets just continue to have fun with the story. Still I do want anyone to believe I don't want harsh constrictive criticism, (like I said the person in question, basically said everything I did was shit and gave no feedback on how I could improve) big difference.

**_Hankflamion18_**_:_ Thanks for the feedback and I got what you said, that chapter always seemed to give me some kind of trouble no matter what I did, however I did go back and made a tiny change to the ending that I think should solve that last bit you mentioned. Thanks for that I love the feedback.

**_Oooberserver: _**Maybe I need to be careful how I phrase things. I'm still using the original chapters as templates only that we will be seeing very distinct differences from the original, compared to the small changes we have seen so far.

* * *

Recommendation: **_Practice Parenting By Drosolmire_**

A cute-one shot, of many of our favorite heroes practicing to be parents while living in the dorm. Featuring a number of popular ships. It's cute and funny and exclusively found on AO3. Do show the guy some love since Drosolmire has been writing for MHA since 2016 so big props. Also do note that this fic was written in sept. of 2017 so some info is a tiny bit outdated.

Now with all that out of the way, story time.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc I: Origins**_

_**Chapter VIII: Training days**_

* * *

**_"The best training program in the world is absolutely worthless without the will to execute it properly,consistently, and with intensity."_**

**_-John Romaniello_**

* * *

When the two arrived at an old rundown gym, even the front entrance door appeared old and worn with some of the windows being broken in random places.

"Well, this is the place," Toshinori said as he gingerly opened the door with Izuku in tow; a puzzled expression clear on his face.

Toshinori looked around in the seemingly empty gym with some concern. Izuku himself looked around as well when he heard Toshinori whisper to himself.

"I'm pretty sure this is where he told me to go…"

"You're late!"

Both had heard an older voice growl out to them. In an instant, Toshinori transformed to All Might and froze, a tinge of fear visible despite being in his large form. On the other hand, Izuku searched for the source of the voice when he suddenly heard a loud **_twack! _**Followed by a clattering of wood, Izuku saw an old gnarled cane landing on the floor after hitting All Might square in the face.

"Ow! What was that for, teacher?!" All Might said in pain.

"Instinct told me you deserved that," The old voice declared from above.

Izuku looked up and saw an small older gentleman wearing a white and yellow hero costume with a black domino mask over his eyes. He held himself steady against the roof of the gym.

_'Whoa! How did he get up there?'_ Izuku thought. '_Is that really that guy All Might was talking about?'_

The old man smirked before letting himself fall from the ceiling. All Might simply stood there expectantly, while Izuku reacted in a shocked manner.

"W-w-w-whoa! Wait!" He exclaimed as he moved to catch the old man, only to be met with a fist that made Izuku fly into a cushioned wall.

"Ever so stern, teacher…" All Might coughed as he transformed back into his skinny form.

"It's the only way to teach a fool correctly," The older and much shorter man answered back, "so… he's the one?"

"Yes, he is," Toshinori nodded.

"And he's Draco Knight's boy, isn't he?"

"How did you...?"

"Did you forget I've been helping you with the investigation? Draco Knight's name was all over that file." Suddenly, the man's eyes narrowed at his former pupil, "Please, don't tell me you didn't give One For All to the lad simply out of misplaced guilt, Toshinori..."

Toshinori however now stood tall before turning back into All Might.

"No. Even in spite of that, young Midoriya proved more than worthy of inheriting One For All," He said solemnly, "And even after I finally told him the truth, he proves himself once again to staying true and forgoing revenge."

Gran Torino huffed before grinning.

"Well then, you've mentioned that he's been having some trouble with his quirk? Ever since he inherited One For All?"

"Yes, I have a feeling that One for All may have altered how young Midoriya's original quirk works now."

"Hmm...it is possible, given what Nana had once told me."

All Might outwardly flinched at mere mention of his deceased master, before being interrupted.

"Ow..."

They both turned to see Izuku finally gathering himself and recovering from Gran Torino's initial attack.

Before All Might could say anything, Gran Torino had already made his way toward the forest-haired boy.

"Oh good, you're up," he began in a stern tone; "lesson one with me, boy: don't ever drop your guard."

Izuku got up with a determined smile on his face, surprising the old man. It dawned on him now, _**not to judge a book by its cover**_**.** He knew that he would have to _**be careful about making assumptions going forward**_**.**

"Heh! Good to see you have a spark in ya. But don't let that get to your head, boy," Gran Torino growled before lunging toward Izuku with a flurry of attacks. "Welcome to Hell!"

And from that moment onwards would be how Izuku's next three months were be spent with the retired pro.

* * *

**SLAM!**

Was heard inside the dojo, the sound echoing in the room to be met with surprise from several students and the dojo's master. Two people were sparring, one a student of the Dojo, the latter a guest who had recently been personally trained in mixed martial arts by Pro Hero in Tokyo.

"GAH!" The student yelled as he was pinned violently against the floor.

"Good! That's a wrap, good job you two!" Called out the dojo's master, putting their sparring session to an end.

Ochako wiped the sweat from her brow as she helped her senior get up from the floor.

"Damn Uraraka! Where did that come from?" He asked with a cough as he struggled to get up, and she giggled back in reply.

"I don't know," Ochako smiled, her demeanor much more positive. "But my master, Gunhead called it, _'the spark of a fighter!'"_

_'More like the aura of a demon!' _The boy gulped, remembering the intimidating aura she would exude came out in droves.

Now that their training was over, the two packed up and headed home. The boy, known as Suzaku Kuwabara, walked with Ochako to their respective homes as the sun setting in the west leaving the sky with an orange-red hue. Now that they were out of halls of their dojo, the two could be far more casual and easy going in their conversation.

"So… you're really going go to UA?" He asked. "And right after coming back from Tokyo a few months ago!"

"Yep!" Ochako chirped. "Dad's got me a place lined up in Shizuoka that his firm is building there."

"Aww, y'know we're all gonna miss ya here," Suzaku contemplated with a sigh, "Well, that's all still a ways away. You still gotta take the entrance exam in like, two months, right?"

"Yeah. I already told Mr. Kuzahara that I'm gonna need a leave of absence when the time for the exam comes around."

"You seem so sure of yourself, but I gotta ask, Ocha-hun…" He turned to his friend, "Why pick UA? Isn't Shinketsu closer, and just as on par with UA?"

"Mhmm, I already know that. But aside that it's _the_ School All Might went too, I... Well..." Ochako began with confidence before slowly turning red.

"Ahhh, your good ol' _'knight,'_ am I right?" Suzaku teased and prodded her with a playful finger and a laugh.

"HEY!" Ochako huffed, her cheeks puffing up in mock anger.

"Ohoho! Ah, y'know I'm just kidding," The boy sighed again, "heck, call me jealous, but I wish I could get me a man like that too!" He was like a big brother to Ochako, and therefore she was one of the few people who knew the truth about his personal preferences.

"It's not like that! I mean... Okay sure, he is one of the reasons for me wanting to go back, but it really isn't the only one! I really do want to become a great rescue hero... My memory of him only made me realize that a bit earlier..."

"And cheer up!" Ochako patted her friend on the back, "I'll be fine! And besides, you'll find someone up your alley one day!"

"If you find a cutie at UA who happens to play for the home team, you'll let me know right?" He said, false sense of pleading found in his voice.

Ochako simply stuck out her tongue before saying.

"Can't promise you anything, Suzu."

"Yeah yeah... Still Ocha, dear…" He sighed, "I really hope everything works out for you."

"Pffft... Oh, come on! I got this!" Ochako said with confidence.

"Alright, alright! I know ya do, especially after today's display," Suzaku laughed. "I'm pretty sure you scared almost everyone there with your _'fighter's spark' _or whatever you call it."

Ochako just laughed again as she looked ahead to the twilight of the day's end. On the cusp of the future's horizon, she had a good feeling everything will turn out alright. After all, she will be returning to the place where her journey to become a hero first began.

* * *

The small girl laughed, blazing through her family's compound at full speed and knowing her Uncle would be catching up to her any second now. He had been training all day, with no time left for him to play with her. And as such, she wanted some sort of revenge, the fun way.

_"HIKARI!"_

Right on cue, she could now hear him yell as he turned the corner behind her.

"You can't catch me, Uncle Teni!" The girl exclaimed breathlessly as she increased the output of her own quirk. Her blue hair, peppered with stray, white strands, waved in the wind as she continued to run at top speed. The young girl knew that even at her current speed he could easily catch up to her if he ran at his top speed. On the other hand however she had an easier time weaving around corners than he could, making their game of cat and mouse more difficult than intended when ever she made sharp turns.

'_If only Shouto where here right now!' __Tenya _silently wished to himself that his best friend, and brother-in-law, was here to help him catch his niece. However, instead of an answered prayer, a nightmare began once he heard that familiar, melodic laughter that ended like a song.

"MWUHAHAHA ~!" Tenya overheard, before a large green ATV with a pink haired girl onboard zoomed right past him. His fears confirmed, Mei Hatsume had arrived at the scene.

"H-HATSUME!" He yelled out with a mixture of frustration and annoyance.

"Hika! Over here!" Mei called out to the little girl, catching up to her speed.

"Mei-mei!" She cheered, before managing to hop onboard. Once Hikari was safe on the ATV, Mei let the engine roar and sped further away, increasing the gap between them and Tenya.

_"DANG IT!" _Tenya roared, finally deciding that enough was enough.

"_RECIPRO BURST!" _

Tenya's engine legs came to life, quickly catching up to the troublesome duo. The four-wheeler turned a sharp corner on the side of the building, only to stop at a dead end.

Tenya gave a rare, ambitious grin.

_'I've got you now!' _He thought as he turned the corner with a well practiced pivot of his left foot.

His grin dissipated and was replaced with a look of horror the instant he spotted the two, with Mei holding to what appeared to look like a rocket launcher aimed directly at right at him. Tenya did his best to slam on the brakes, before turning back in order to try and make his escape.

"Target acquired!" Mei exclaimed, a wide mischievous smile on her face and her zoom-in quirk making up for a lack of a scope on the launcher.

"FIRE!" Hikari ordered with a waved of her lollipop toward Tenya.

With a click of the trigger, the launcher fired a thick, mesh net at her target and successfully capturing Tenya by pinning him to the ground.

"Wha – why?!" Tenya exclaimed as he attempted to escape from the netting.

"Phew!" Mei said ignoring Tenya's cries for help, "That was fun, wasn't it Hika?"

The child giggled in response, nodding her head vigorously.

"Thanks for helping me test my newest baby, Teni ~!" Mei shouted out.

"Gah! Please, just help me get out of this thing!" Tenya cried out again, attempting his distinctive arm chop to get his way out and failing to do so.

"Sorry Teni, no can do. I need to time how long it takes you to escape from it ~!" Mei answered as she pulled out a stopwatch from her cleavage. Hikari simply enjoyed being in the company of her two old friends while enjoying the lollipop that Mei had given her. The trio continued about on their misadventures, not knowing that they were being observed from above.

"I still give it a year before they finally hook up," Yuno observed, the well-built man of middling height and his pinkish white crazy hair with matching goatee to boot. He was dressed in a dark grey mechanic's jumpsuit, the Idaten Agency badge set above his left breast pocket.

Fuyumi laughed, "Please, don't tell me you're actually 'shipping' them together."

Yuno shot back with a dramatic flair akin to his sibling's antics.

"A brother only wants what is best for his little sister ~!" He was quick to proclaim, "Plus... it couldn't help to have less competition on the market."

"Yuno!" Fuyumi exclaimed, "Tensei honey, talk some sense into your friend here!"

Tensei only shrugged with a small smile on his face. He mirthfully observed his young brother finally breaking out of the net, just to be tackled to the ground again by his daughter and friend's younger sister.

"I'd be careful what you'd wish for Yuno," Tensei chuckled. "A relationship might make Mei more ambitious."

He remembered when the Tenya and Mei first met a few years ago, and the explosive boom Mei had made in her inventions shortly afterward.

"Bah!" Yuno managed to gasp out.

"Both of them have plans to join UA soon, and Tenya's exams are only a few weeks away. On top of that, I'm pretty sure he's gonna need a brilliant gear technician to support and keep him going," He conclude, confidently patting his friend on the back.

"Yeah yeah..." Yuno looked on at the two, a tiniest hint of sadness left on his face. He had to face the fact that Mei wasn't going to remain being his baby sister anymore. Sooner than later, she was going to grow up.

* * *

"Aim carefully, now." Kai peered through a scope eyeing the paper target several yards ahead.

There, a boy lying prone aimed straight ahead with the butt stock of a rifle resting on his shoulder.

"Weapon's free, you may fire when ready," Kai ordered calmly. He heard the young, dark haired youth fixing the way he breathed to adjust his aim.

_**BANG**_

The rifle flashed as the bullet flew out; sound echoing out the field. Kai looked over to the target once again; bullseye.

"Good," Kai said as he helped the boy up. "You've improved."

"Given how much you drilled it into me," The boy said dully with a tired sigh. He got up from the ground to sit down on a bench and proceed to carefully unload the rifle, "I'm afraid to say I didn't have much of a choice _but_ to get better."

In general, recreational shooting would be far more difficult to get permission for, but thanks to Kai's position, it allowed him to make opportunities to access the shooting range much easier. And for what better way for him, a newly minted father, and his adopted son to bond over? Or at the very least, that's what he would maintain as a cover.

"Ryu," Kai spoke up, observing the boy's handling of the firearm; making sure he was following all normal precautions to the letter.

"Mhm?" Ryu grunted in response as most of his attention was currently placed on his gun.

"I received an interesting little document that was brought to my attention recently."

"Oh? What of?" he asked, continuing unloading the ammunition without looking up.

"Your past."

In an instant, Ryu stopped moving with and his hands suddenly clutching the rifle with what seemed like either anger or panic. Kai, however, remained unphased by his reaction.

"Of a certain disgraced politician named Saito, and his supposed illegitimate son," He chuckled darkly. "When we got introduced with the help of Mister Anno, I had to admit, who ever came up with your fake name knew what it would take to shake me."

"With a last name like Kasei along with your appearance to boot, I found it too much of a coincidence." Kai added, he wasn't joking. When he first met the boy, he almost went pale as he thought it was the ghost of a younger Hisashi that had come back to haunt him. "A little digging and, to my surprise, what I found instead."

Ryu's eyes narrowed as he looked up to his adopted father, but his grip on his firearm relaxed. Kai could see the boy wanted to say something; seeing that face filled with malice, but one that wasn't about to speak recklessly.

"So, what is the son of a disgraced politician doing, helping the very movement that ruined him?" He asked calmly.

"And what's it to you?" Ryu finally answered back voice dripping with venom.

"Given the job we have set up for you at UA, assuming you are getting into the hero course."

"_When _I get into the hero course."

Kai let out a biting laugh.

"Of course. But regardless of that, I would prefer to know all the cards I have on hand, especially since I know that I've lost some favor with the movement as of late." Kai said almost dismissively. After all, he had joined the movement due to the growing advancement it got it. Yet, much of the political agenda itself left Kai tired and disgusted to no end. Only proven further by getting a damn kid involved their schemes.

_**In the end, it didn't matter as the Neocons were simply a means to an end for him.**_

Ryu sighed to himself. Aside from the task he was assigned to execute for the Neocons, he had his own personal goals to accomplish with this mission. It was his means to secure the future.

"Spying on the school, you say? I still don't know why you would even need me to do that." Ryu said with the tiny hint of sarcasm.

"And that's on a need to know basis. What I need to know now is what your endgame is."

Ryu looked at Kai squarely in the eyes.

"It's pretty simple really."

"Oh?"

"Change. That's all what I want."

Kai brows went up in surprise.

"You think I actually cared about my old man?" Ryu laughed bitterly as he placed the unloaded rifle down to his side. "Pfft, fuck the old prick. I was illegitimate for a reason. Hell, killing himself was probably the best thing that could have happened to me."

He continued, as a mask of a dark and sinister grin forming on his face. "Nah, I want something else. The Neocons have already mentioned putting in certain reforms that interest both me and some of the orphans I grew up with, so I jumped at the chance to support getting those reforms passed sooner than later. Not to mention gaining clout when I'm older, and getting connections if I need them."

The boy gave a cocky smile as he gave a half-heart shrug.

"We could all really use a leg up in the world, ya know? Especially the quirkless ones that lived among us. Don't you think I don't already know that you can't get anywhere without getting your hands dirty?"

Kai nodded slowly, remembering his own actions. "Is that so?"

Ryu nodded, as his golden eyes opened up again; appearing dull and dead with a frown replacing the smile.

"I think you would know better than anyone. With your own record, _father. _Don't forget, I'm not the only one with skeletons in his closet. The only exception is that mine won't kill my career."

"Clever boy." Kai said with a small grin forming on his own face. Hideyoshi must have told Ryu a few truths keep him in line.

"Oh, and _father_?"

"Yes, _son_?"

"Do both of us a favor and not bring up my past again. I'd prefer being in a good mood."

"Very well. However, since we are talking about things on a need to know basis, and you seem so sure about getting into the hero course, I'll at least share this tidbit with you."

Ryu straightened up, his attention piqued.

"I got word from a contact with the Ministry of Education that All Might will be joining UA as a teacher."

Ryu's eyes almost popped out of his head; Kai could almost see the gears turn into the boy's head. "You're joking..."

"I am not."

"But... I mean, why? Now of all times?"

Kai shrugged, "Perhaps he wants to teach the next generation."

"Makes it sound like he might... retire," Ryu shuddered.

Kai couldn't help but agree with the young boy's sentiments. Despite the poor relationship between All Might and himself, he still respected the man as hero and knew of the value of him being the world's Symbol of Peace.

All the more reason why Hisashi needed to take the fall in the end.

Yet the very thought of the deceased pro-hero sent a stabbing pain shot through his chest, where he himself buried his own scars from the man he once considered to be as close as a son to him, all the way until that dreadful night all those years ago.

**The night that changed everything.**

* * *

Kurogiri stood by nervously. To say he was in an extreme dangerous and tense situation at the moment was a bit of an understatement.

Tomura Shigaraki was begun to make a few power moves, knowing full well that the time was near for the successor to finally be chosen. He wanted to play the long con, and that meant securing loyally from outside the league's direct influence. Now, he and Tomura were among several heads of the underworld including Heads of "The Union," the some representatives of Yakuza who had gone underground, and crime lords and bosses, who had clout in both the public and private sectors of the country.

Despite the room being filled with the some of the worst scum that society had to offer, there was one man whose reputation rivaled that of Tomura's within the underworld. A yakuza capo, who had become the boss of his outfit shortly after his Master's last battle, a betrayal that rang hollow to a man he had once respected so dearly.

Kai Chisaki, known better by his villain name: **Overhaul.**

Tension rose when the mere mention of tribute was raised.

"The League's offer is generous, but it's not without what we believe to be a more than a fair price," Tomura spoke with confidence. As much of the underworld muttered to themselves some in agreement, others saw issues with the offer but hesitated to raise opposition. However, one person had no such fear.

"If this is a joke, Shigaraki... it's a rather poor one," Overhaul calmly spoke up, his voice slightly muffled by his beak like mask.

Kurogiri could feel the silence that now pierced the room, nearly everyone stopped what they were doing to see what the young upstarts would do. Tomura simply grinned without missing a beat, countering the insult with one of his own.

"It is no joke, Chisaki, but given the condition of you little gang, it would indeed seem like a large price to pay. Shame that the old guard just can't seem to grow out like it once did."

Some had laughed, others stood quiet. Many yakuza, including Overhaul's group known as _**The Eight Precepts of Death**_, have lost much of their prestige, influence and respect as being part of such an organization would have once brought in the past.

Overhaul angered by the jab, shot back.

"The cost versus benefit would do little good for my own crew, and to several others here who refuse to speak up."

Tomura stayed silent, resisting the urge to smile as he was secretly pleased by the answer.

Overhaul called out everyone else for him; painting a target on himself. The yakuza boss proved to be too stubborn and proud to know what he had now done. Tomura himself may not have the best social skills, but he even he could see the faces among them slowly turning and rethinking their loyalty. Even to those would stay allied as fellow yakuza now knew that Overhaul could be more of a liability rather than a benefit in the long run.

"So, if what Chisaki says here is true, does anyone have objections to raise?" Tomura asked with a voice braced in confidence, throwing the gauntlet down to anyone who would dare challenge him right now. He had survived through the very depths of hell, **with his family **_**to **___**against **___**his family**_. He had clawed, killed and plotted to get into the position he was in today with only one rival left standing in his way. He wouldn't allow for anyone else to stand in his way.

Those two were fated to fight, and whoever was left standing would take it all.

* * *

And now for a new piece, one of my inspirations **btn29 **has Omakes in his stories and I wanted to do something like this myself. So I decided to write something small for an **OC** that proved surprising popular in the original version.

(Which completely threw me for a loop given how OC's tend to be treated by fans, this OC will be featured for _**Arc II**_ for a minor subplot and another short I have planned)

* * *

**_**Short Story I: The Foreigner who wants to be a Hero. **_**

**-**_Months ago; shortly after Izuku met All Might._

* * *

Alexander Springfield* groaned painfully as he stirred awake.

His eyes stung and burned as they struggled to open. Given how much he had used his quirk today for the Sports Festival it made sense. His whole body ached like if he had been hit with a truck at full speed, only he didn't get the benefit of being Isekai'd to a fantasy world.

His breathing was labored and painful even while lying down; due to the bruising on his face and throat. He struggled to sit him himself up with his good left arm as the right was currently stiffly bound up in a sling; having been fractured earlier that day.

'Damn I need a cookie or something...I'm pretty sure Recovery Girl was only able to partly heal me since I'm still pretty banged up.' Alex thought to himself as managed to sit-up straight in spite of the pain that shot through his heavy body. He would need to recover his stamina in order to expedite his healing.

'Just long have I been here?' He wondered as he looked around the small room. Once he saw the snack cart nearby, along with some of the signage nearby, he realized that he was in one of the empty storage rooms that had been converted into a break room for Hero Course Participants of the Sports Festival.

'Wait...this isn't right...Shouldn't I be in outer hall? That's where all the other General Studies participants should have been sent to.' He wondered as his blurry version continued to try to regained focus. He might have been a liaison for the Hero Course, but he was still a General Education student first and would have been treated as such. 'Screw it not important, I need to know what time it is.'

Alex's blurry vision finally began to clear up allowing him to spot the time displayed on a nearby wall clock, it was only then that he began to tremble with nervousness as he sat there in the cot.

The Sports Festival should have been over by now, and the closing ceremonies were either about to start any moment now or could already be over if the fights had been quick enough once he had been defeated. Alex had managed to finish in the top eight, before getting beaten out by Mezou Shouji,** who managed to wrestle him into submission. Or more accurately choked the living crap out of him -_almost literally_ until he passed out.

He knew once he had been pinned by the multi-armed hero course student's _**Unbreakable Grapple Lock move**_, it was over for him. Yet somewhere in Alex's head between stupidity, stubbornness and pride he simply would not allow himself to surrender, preferring "death" to quitting. An action that Mezou respected but acquiesced by showing no quarter when he decided to squeeze the brunette's neck until his face turned blue and finally passed out.

Alex rubbed his neck at the memory; now wide awake and awaiting his fate. He had managed to go far for a general studies student, and compared to last year, he was leagues ahead. Last year, he had failed to even get past the first obstacle in his first year as he had fallen into that damn pit with the ropes after he misjudged his quirk's jumping ability and his poor health.

Afterward however Alex had decided to only double-down on his commitment and continued training with everything he had. His goal at the time was to achieve a promotion to become one of the two liaison students for the Hero Course. Slimming down, and getting stronger; biding his time until finally, one of the previous liaison's had dropped out for personal reasons.

So near the end of the last school year, Alex applied and after one very grueling trial by fire proctored by Eraserhead he had achieved his goal and became a Hero Course Liaison Student for the General Studies Course. Now fortune had smiled again on him again as one of the hero course students had dropped out for personal reasons before the year had even started.

With an open spot and his position as a liaison he was ever closer to his true goal of being a Hero Course student. Yet..even though he had placed higher in this year's sports festival overall, he had his own rival who had been a liaison for Hero Course much longer than he had been and was the favored student to take the spot.

The more Alex thought about his actions that got him here, the more doubts began to form in his mind. Alex sat there thinking over every little bit of his latest bout of the Sports Festival he had been through. It got to the point that he couldn't hold back the tears of frustration that formed on his face; burning as they trailed down his face.

He had dreamed of being a hero for countless years, especially after seeing all the great deeds people could do with their own powers. His parents had wanted him to stay in the US and attend the hero courses offered there, but Alex refused. He always carried this lifelong desire to apply for the same school that the world's Symbol of Peace had attended in his younger years.

And thanks to a kind and generous cousin who happened to work and live in Tokyo, that allowed him to take that one-in-a-million chance by taking the exchange student program offered at UA. Years of forward thinking study had prepped him to learn the language with courses offered by one of the state colleges he lived nearby. It took several exams, but it ended with him arriving in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Yet, even while he still managed to get into the prestigious UA, he had only managed to get into the General Studies course after failing the practical exam for the Hero Course. Now, he feared that if he was unable to take that open spot to transfer to the hero course now, then it would be too late to gain any pro-hero experience by his third year in the academy.

"Springfield, you awake yet!?" A loud voice called out.

"Sir!" Alex hopped out of the cot and stood to attention nearby yelling out in pain as his body wasn't ready for the sudden moment. Instead he simply sucked it up and quickly dried his tears with the sleeve of his good arm.

"Then head out to the field with the rest of the third-round competitors. The closing ceremonies for the Second Years are about to begin!"

"Yes, sir!" Alex managed to say without stutter, break, or sob to be found his voice. On one hand he was glad that he hadn't missed the ceremony and could stand tall with everyone else who had managed to get this far. Yet on the other hand his fate was still ambiguous and that only served to compound his nerves. He knew his family back home where watching on a live-stream, his cousin Lucy should be at the stands right now waiting for him.

'This is it...The moment of truth.' Alex thought to himself inhaling as deeply as he could, pain be damned.

He moved with his lead heavy legs making his way from inside and to the field with the determination of a man possessed ignoring every ache, pain, sore and bruise. He would be able to rest soon, he just needed to get this over with before he could. Upon arriving to the field he saw that the ring had been fixed and the stands filled with cheering fans as the sixteen who made it to the third round returned in various states of recovery. The platforms had already been raised with the four who occupied the first, second and third places respectively.

**"Oh yeah! My good listeners! We are here to start the award ceremony with this year's pro-hero guest and fellow UA alumni! Give it up for the Flame Hero: Endeavor!"** Present Mic's voice spoke out from the speakers.

Alex and the rest of the students in the field turned to see the fiery hero appear from the eastern entrance of the ring. Along with some of his sidekicks who held the boxes that contained the medals for reserved for the top three. The crowd roared with excitement, upon seeing the Rank two hero make his way to the center of the ring.

Endeavor paused once he got there and waiting for Cementoss to make a stairway toward each of the three platforms so he could reach to where the winners stood. As he did Present Mic began with the announcements that would change Alex's life forever.

**"While our good ol' Cementoss makes the stairs for Endeavor, we have a bit of added recognition from the general studies and business course. The votes are in: for the most entertaining match goes to Mirio Togata versus Yusei Kodo! I'll say, the censoring team is going to have a field day editing that fight!"** He said with a laugh, making the blond who stood in first place laugh along with many others in the stands and watching from home.

**"Next is the crowd favorite, with Nejire Hadou!"** The blue-haired girl waved from her third-place spot next to Shouji.

**"And now, we have one last special announcement, but first we want to show everyone this video that was kindly put together by the General Studies Course."**

The crowd went silent as their attention was directed to the screens that surrounded the stadium.

When they came to live with footage from last year's Sports Festival, with cheery hopeful sounding music beating through and on the screen showed a familiar face _-albeit significantly chubbier_, with brown hair and bright blue eyes racing with his face in a panic. It was Alex from last year on screen, as the present-day Alex stood there with his face flushed red seeing this and know what was about to happen next. The crowd laughed as Alex had made it to the "The Fall," and then proceed to fall into it after a flash and failing to grab on to the ledge.

Alex, on the other hand, wasn't laughing along.

'_Was this all just embarrass me?'_ He grimly thought when he heard everyone laugh; feeling like this had been made just to mock him.

_"This is Alexander Springfield, a general studies student and foreign guest of UA," _The narrator began. Alex quickly sobered up recognizing that voice; it belonged to one of his friends in his in the General Studies Course. _"He's a bit silly, and maybe a bit more forward than we're normally used to, but he's good, hard-working guy."_

The video continued, showing a montage of Alex training hard, him beaming with a scale show how much weight he had lost, participating in joint lessons with the Hero Course. The scene changed to day that Principal Nezu and his homeroom teacher announced his promotion to becoming a liaison student for the Hero Course.

_"He may have failed hard in his first sports festival, but that didn't stop from trying, if anything it made him far more determined to making it into the hero course."_

His face blushed deeper, but now felt uplifted by happier thoughts. The video soon concluded, finishing up with a two still pictures; first of him with his general studies homeroom class and the second with classes 1-A and 1-B joint photograph.

**"And recognition for the most improvement made is: Alexander Springfield."** Present Mic announced once the video came to an end and the crowds applauded for him now. The poor boy didn't know what to do, but awkwardly wave with his good arm nervously while maintaining a shy smile.

**"But dear listeners, it doesn't just end there! As some of you may have noticed, but recently we had a spot open up in the hero course..."**

Alex's suddenly froze, taking in a sharp breath as he heard those words. As his heart began holding out for that hope. The hope to achieve his one of his longest held dreams he carried for years.

**"And after today's performance, a unanimous decision was made during the break while we were setting the stage for the award ceremony. I officially got the OK from Principal Nezu himself to go ahead…"**

**"I am pleased to announce and welcome our newest addition to the Hero Course: Alexander Springfield, welcome aboard to your Hero Academia!"**

The crowd cheered and whooped, as Alex stood there as his brain progressed those words. At that very moment, he wasn't even sure if he had heard him correctly. There was no way that just happened, right? He was dreaming, yeah that's right, it was just a dream, he was still lying unconscious in that cot with that damaged brain of his making all of this up.

"YOU DID MAN!"

"YOU'RE ONE OF US NOW!"

"CONGRATULATIONS SPRINGFIELD!"

Alex was snapped out of his thoughts as he turned to faced his fellow competitors, who all began cheering and congratulating him. It was only as this moment that his eyes had begun burning again, but this time it was tears of joy that had sprung pouring down his face without any control; this wasn't a dream. This was real, this was really happening.

His heavy legs finally gave in as he fell to his knees. He had made it. All the blood, sweat, and tears had come down to this, and he could find no words to describe the joy that he felt at that moment all he could do at that very moment was cry.

Meanwhile in his home, Izuku watched as tears ran down his own face. As he could relate to the emotions of the foreign boy who was just told that his dreams had finally come true.

* * *

**Author's commentary**

* Alexander Johnathan Springfield: Again surprised by just how popular this OC grew to be I decided to make a small general profile for him.  
Age: (17 Arc I) (18 in Arc II)

Hair color: Dark brown

Eye color: Bright blue (Eyes that have a natural glow, due to it being a passive side-effect of his quirk)

Height: 5'9

He is based on one my best friends, who is a complete goof-ball but it well meaning and hardworking. (Not his name)  
Quirk: _**Blink.**_ Can lock on to a target within his eyesight and flash toward that spot when he blinks.

I was asked if his quirk was based on Tracer from Overwatch, but no, instead the Quirk was based on similar ability of the same name from the video game series: _**Dishonored.**_ So if you've ever played that game and used that ability it is basically the same only based on eye sight.

**Mezou Shouji: Yes you read that correctly, older readers knew this already, but when dealing with an Alternate Universe, I believe you have to do far more than simply give Izuku a quirk. I did age Mezou up to make him a third year so he will not be attending UA as 1-A student, and this chapter did feature the OC who replaced him. There are few other replacements, but most of those are canon characters.

There is only 1 OC for both 1-A and 1-B with all other changes being characters that are still part of the actual series. And I'll say this now, my older readers know about this too.

**No I will not being replacing Mineta.**

Mineta has his role to play in this story, I have no intention of removing him period. I'm very neutral towards the character and I found that there are things to like and dislike about him.

I however want to challenge myself to make him a better character, while still keeping him within character. Tall order but damn it I mean it. This isn't a jab at any other authors who do this, but it something that I think that people lose a massive amount of opportunity to something new and actually make the effort to try and improve on a character rather than simply condemning him with no chances to improve.

I hope once other people see my plans with Mineta, that they would at least think more carefully about doing something similar before simply replacing Mineta in their story or solely making him a punching bag.

(I got OC's to be punching bags for me)

I do that this chapter will pay off as we start chipping away at the sub-plots and how they connect to the main story as continue forward.

The next chapter should be familiar to old readers.

_**Chapter IX: The Unknown Reunion**_ should be out on 5/21/2019 seeya then

As always with lots of love  
-X


	9. The Unknown Reunion

I am horrible at keeping my updates consistent, but I'm pretty the people who like my stuff won't complain.

Anyways, I'm a pretty good mood, but when also I remembered that I am going to be super busy tomorrow._** (My little brother is graduating high school)**_and I bought him a Switch to reward him.

(He's been saving his money for over a year to get one XD.) with 2 games. (BOTW and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for those curious, both he really wanted) He has no idea that I bought it for him, and before we leave for the ceremony, I'm going to have it set-up in his room so when he comes home...BOOM...Switch. XD

Because of this, I have decided to upload_** Chapter IX**_...Now, but still expect _**Chapter X**_ on 5/24/19

As for my Beta, she got in contact with me and I will not share any details, but I can say safely that I completely understand why she took longer than planned. I updated _**Chapter VIII**_ with the Beta-read and edited version, if you want to see the change and what an amazing job she does.

However that said I am still planning to move on with my original plans forward. I am hoping to give my Beta reader a break so she can get things settled, while I try to build off the skills she as provided and taught to me, coming forward.

* * *

**Reviews**: Since it's only been about a day with only a handful of comments, I'm going to forgo this section this time.

* * *

**Recommendation**

**Todoroki's Master Plan**: by _EverlastingEvansecence_

A quick really funny One-Shot. For the sake of the fic, I won't say anything but I ended up laughing for a solid minute or so. Please give the guy some love and check out his other fics too. He's done a lot for MHA with the rare crack ships of Mei and Bakugou...which while I don't get it or ship it, he surprisingly makes it very believable...I need a drink. XD

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_**

__**Saga I: Dusk**__

**_**Arc I: Origins**_**

**_**Chapter IX: The Unknown Reunion**_**

* * *

_**"Every parting is a form of death, as every reunion is a type of heaven". **_

_**\- Tryon Edwards**_

* * *

_'Thank you, my Knight.'_

Izuku's eyes snapped open upon hearing those familiar words once again at the end of his favorite childhood dream. He slowly rose from his bed with a slight groan as he looked around his room. It was still dark out if his bedroom window was any indication. The last few nights had been rather strange for him, as he'd been having that same dream over and over for the last few days now.

The dream recollecting the day when his quirk had first manifested, and his first and only meeting with the girl he had helped all those years ago. The day when he was first _'knighted,_' according to his father.

He wasn't sure if this reoccurring dream meant anything, or if all that combat training from All Might and Gran Torino was finally getting to him. The old, retired pro pulled no punches when it came to his personal training. The surprises that _**One For All combined with Dragon Shift**_ could do was equal parts amazing, terrifying, and absolutely exhausting.

After wiping the grime of sleep from his eyes, Izuku checked his phone for the time. There, in the dim glow of the light.

**03:21 AM**

Izuku was nervous. Today marked the final day just before the UA entrance exams.

His rigorous, three-month training with the two older pro heroes officially ended yesterday. Today was his scheduled day to rest; his chance to study, his chance to steady his nerves and find himself. Yet, all of Izuku's thoughts kept returning to that girl that continue to invade his dreams.

Izuku used to think about her all the time when he was a child, fawning over his first childhood crush. It was silly, of course, but Izuku had always been a bit of a silly, idealistic kid. It didn't help as his father often teased his young son, boasting how that girl was his princess, the one who gave him his armor. After all, he had first awoken his quirk to help her.

However, all those thoughts of her came to an abrupt end when his father died. No more dreams, only a dark pit of despair when he slept; feeling cold and alone.

Now that these dreams were coming back into his mind, what could it all mean?

Was she okay? Did she even remember him?

Izuku couldn't even remember her name, and doubted that she would remember his, too. Besides, even if she did remember him… if she knew that he was Draco Knight's son now, she would probably would have avoided him like the plague, just like everyone else did once they learned the truth about his past; who his father was.

Izuku breathed in a large yawn and decided to slip back into bed. Hoping to return back into the realms of slumber, and perhaps if he was lucky would continue to dream of those simpler days that was now long gone. He had to rest up, as he would be up in a matter of hours anyway. All Might had suggested for Izuku to rest up for the big day, but putting a pause from his training habits, even just for a day, just wasn't his style.

Even on his day off, he would get ready for the day with at least some light training and to make sure that the beach continued to stay clean. The tide still brought in trash and litter every few days or so, and he wasn't willing to have Dagobah Beach dirtied up again after all that effort he had put into it.

Little did he know as he closed his eyes, that very same girl from ten years ago was now only a few blocks away, fast asleep and unprepared of what would lead to their unknown reunion.

* * *

Ochako Uraraka woke up to her alarm clock at five that very morning in her small yet cozy apartment. Ever the early riser since she began her more intensive training regime two years ago, she was now in Musutafu to start the next critical step in her life and goals of being a great Pro-Hero.

Her father had invested into a new construction company after saving up the money and leaving his previous job with the government. Business was booming with several of the new apartment complexes being constructed by his company, so Ochako was able to live in this one rent-free for the time being.

Of course, she would have to return back to her hometown in Mie to finish up her last year of middle school after managing to secure a small leave of absence from school to take the UA entrance exam taken place in the big city. After all, any middle school faring from the countryside would love to brag on how one of their own – _a girl no less_ from their humble school got into UA, as it would be a major achievement considered in school pride.

Ochako was confident that she was capable enough to pass the exam. So much so that she had already unpacked most of her things in preparation of attending UA, even though the new school year had yet to begin until a few weeks after the entrance exam. Posters of famous pro-heroes dotted the walls of her bedroom. This included Heroes like **Thirteen**, **All Might**, and her personal favorite, **Draco Knight**, along with posters of several hobbies of her interest: space, fantasy-themed anime shows, and even a star chart.

At the centerpiece of her pro-hero collection was her prized Draco Knight pendant or _The Knight's Commander _medal that hung upon the wall as the center piece of her collection. Years ago, she had won it in a contest held by his fan club. It was a Limited Edition with only twenty piece were ever made each numbered by their rank, with her number being _**nine out of the twenty.**_ The medal was a neck-order of Draco Knight's personal emblem that he and his sidekicks had worn on their hero costumes: A black outline of a double-edged long sword with a cross guard in the shape of dragon wings; centered in the middle of a sliver kite shield.

Now years later, Ochako still found herself to be very excited to be back in Draco Knight's hometown. Having visited here before many years ago, during one of her father's work trips years ago when she had also met the boy she had dubbed her knight.

In the face of everything that was said and done about Draco Knight, she had always had an inkling that something went wrong with the events that happened that night. Ochako had always hoped that maybe someone somewhere had gotten the facts wrong. Even to this day, she alongside her father had always defended Draco Knight, the latter having personally known the man during his time as a DAM. He knew that until that fateful day, Draco Knight would had always been careful to try and avoid unnecessary destruction, or at least according to what her father had always told her.

"Okay, let's see what we have planned today."

She rose out of bed after her daily stretches to check her day-to-day routine plan written on her large white board mounted in her room. She gained this habit from training with several other local pro-heroes working in her hometown.

This included a month-long junior training program with pro-hero Gunhead in the city of Tokyo. While the experience itself was tough and hellish, she was grateful for everything she learned. As she looked over her training schedule, she began to check the items off on the board.

_'Okay, I got a five-kilometer jog and I can use that to be more familiar with the city layout, too.'_

_'Light breakfast, and shower afterward with a small break.'_

_'Quirk practice, maybe I can find a local place with a lot of trash?'_

Ochako had taken to heart the many of the lessons that her favorite heroes often said, with her favorite being,

"_Community service is the cornerstone of basic heroism."_

Ochako had gotten a head start with volunteer work, with several recycling and trash cleanup programs in her hometown serving as great practice. With the advantage of her quirk, she got to be useful in her efforts.

_'After that, I can do some lunch, and then study for the written portion of the exam.'_

Pumped and motivated for the day, Ochako got together her workout outfit. A simple basic set of gray sweats with a pink sweatband and fingerless gloves, the exception of covering her pinkie fingers to avoid her quirk from accidentally going off. Dressed and ready, she grabbed her keys and phone to run out the door and start her morning jog.

The sunrise was halfway peaking from the horizon when she left, leaving a nice, cool winter breeze with signs of spring was just around the corner.

'_It's almost around that time… when I met him, wasn't it?'_ She thought to herself as she jogged down the street.

It had been ten years since she met that boy in this very town.

That boy and his kindness that went out his way to help her… he had been the one that inspired her to become a pro-hero. A boy whose name and looks she sadly couldn't remember. All she could remember his smile, that silly smile that reminded her of All Might and his quirk that reminded her of Draco Knight.

The innocent love she carried for her first childhood crush always seemed a bit silly for her, but it was enough to lead her to where she was now. Without a doubt, everything about that mystery boy screamed future pro-hero in the making. His drive to help her, and his kind words about her quirk sparked the hope in her to become a pro-hero as well. In her mind and her heart, she often wished she could see him again, if only just to say, **"Thank you."**

_'Maybe he'll be at UA? Or could he had gone to another hero course?'_

_'Could he even… be an upperclassman?' _She continued to think over the possibility of him being a year or so older than her, until she came across the waterfront beach, seeing a fair amount of trash on it. She looked for the entrance sign that read: **Dagobah Municipal Beach.**

_'Perfect! After breakfast, I can come here to clean up and practice!'_

She was still getting used to city living, with the people around here were much messier and more careless with their litter compared than those back home in the countryside. But she wouldn't complain as it meant more chances for her to put her training into use. She continued her jog up until she reached the two-and-a-half-kilometer mark, allowing her to cross the street and finish her five-kilometer run as she jogged back to her apartment.

Ochako didn't even notice a young, green-haired boy who was jogging on the opposite side of the street, heading towards the very beach she had just passed by moments ago.

She arrived back into her apartment, where she quickly prepared for her shower and decided to skip breakfast until after she cleaned up the beach. Just before heading to the bathroom, she grabbed a small box that contained five darts and moved to the living room where she had mounted five different dart boards.

Using her quirk to float each dart, she aligned each one with their given target, trying to make sure that they were aimed to hit the bullseye. When the darts were set in place, she then left them alone floating perfectly still and allowed herself to leave and begin her shower. While in the middle of bathing, she focused her concentration and released each dart, one by one.

"Shift," Ochako said would say quietly with each dart released at different points in time, praying that she did it perfectly.

When she left the shower, she saw all five darts had hit the bullseye of their respective targets.

"Yes!" She cheered with a pump of her fist.

Ever since she discovered a new trick to her quirk when she was around eight years old, she had learned the _**Zero Gravity**_ wasn't exactly what her quirk was. Instead, after tinkering around and one update to her registration form later, her quirk now known as _**Gravity Shift**_. She can now control the direction of an object's gravity, reduce the weight of an object and add it something else while she has it under her control.

Before, Ochako used to use balls for practice since they were bigger and safe to practice with. But nowadays, she used darts since they were smaller, lighter and therefore much more difficult to keep in place for even a short amount of time. Ochako still suffered from nausea if she used her quirk on herself or shifted very large amount of weight in short amount of time, but she had theorized that one day, she could use her quirk on herself to basically fly in the future... that is, _if_ she could improve her tolerance to the nausea.

"Oh shoot! I almost forgot! I still need to go to the beach and clean it up!"

She got up to change into a more casual outfit, one that she didn't mind getting dirty. Gathering up some heavy-duty gloves, she headed out back to the beach.

* * *

To say Izuku was a bit peeved was an understatement, given that quite a bit of trash had already built up again in the two weeks he hadn't been here.

Including_ ANOTHER DAMN FRIDGE!_

On top of that, he didn't want to use his quirk in public for the whole mess, so he decided save using his power to take care of the larger pieces when he was done.

Izuku thankfully had managed to clear all the trash on his own within the hour. Now for the fridge, Izuku began to think out loud, all while not noticing that he had company walking up behind him.

"Okay, how do I handle this? I could just pull it, but I also could try lifting it..." He let out another stream of mutters under his breath, "but that could strain my back, or maybe if I lightly shift my body with my quirk just to increase my arm, leg and back strength to enforce my stance; my clothes can hide it... YEP, let's go with that!"

He finally decided with a nod and gusto in his voice.

Izuku lightly shifted his body under his clothes, feeling One for All surge through his limbs as scales began forming with a light glow of sparks. He slowly grabbed the fridge lifted it slowly, making sure to lift with his knees and not his back.

"Wow, ya' weren't kiddin' when you said you could lift that with yer quirk," a soft voice said with a giggle.

This caught Izuku completely off-guard, as he yelped in surprise; dropping the fridge that landed squarely on his left foot. The pain caused his eyes to water and blurred his vision.

"OH NO! I'm so sorry!" He heard the voice again. Without even looking, Izuku noticed the voice behind him sounded feminine.

_'Oh crap! Of course it had to be a girl!' _He panicked to himself, only to suddenly feel the pain ease up from his foot and the fridge being removed from the ground effortlessly.

"Wah?!" He blinked the tears away, and saw the girl in question, around his age, moving the heavy appliance with ease and leaving him complete stunned. So much so, he nearly forgot the extreme amount of pain he was in.

"WHOA! That's amazing! Is that your quirk?!"

"Shift!" He heard her say, launching the fridge towards the wall.

"Release!"

And landed the fridge perfectly without any damage to the wall behind it.

"Phew! Again, I'm sorry about tha..." She said while turning, only to pause as she saw the boy in front of her.

Both of them had stopped and began thinking the same thing. Izuku looked at the girl with a round cute face with light blush, with chocolate hair and eyes. While Ochako saw something in his bright emerald eyes and the wild mess of forest-colored hair.

_'She looks familiar...'_

_'He looks familiar...'_

It took both of them a moment to realize that had both been staring at each other for quite sometime. Leading to make both of them to turn away from each other in embarrassment;a light blush forming on their faces.

"I'M SORRY FOR STARING!"

"NO, I'M SORRY FOR MAKING YOU DROP THE FRIDGE ON YOURSELF!"

_"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT, I SHOULD HAVE BEEN PAYING MORE ATTENTION!"_

_"BUT I SHOULD HAVE APPROACHED YOU MORE CAREFULLY!"_

Both ended up pausing again with another realization.

Why were they yelling at each other? The two looked back at each other and without warning began to laugh, until Izuku remembered the pain in his foot when he tried moving it.

"Ow..."

"Oh, no! I'm so very sorry!" She walked up and managed to support him; easing him to sit down on the sand to try and take the weight off his foot. "I was here earlier for my morning jog and saw all the junk. I came back to clean it up, only to find that you already did it!"

"You clean up public spaces too?" Izuku raised his eyebrows in surprise. He had never seen anyone else do this, not without being a part of some kind of volunteer program.

"Yeah! All my favorite pro-heroes believe in community service, so I wanted to do that very same thing!"

"Same here! Who's your favorite pro-hero?"

Ochako had to stop her herself at that moment thinking carefully how to answer. She wanted to answer with Draco Knight, but she wasn't sure about how this boy's reaction could be to that. In the past, she had gotten flak from some of her classmates for still liking the pro-hero, even after his supposed disgrace.

"Thirteen, followed by All Might!" She answered with a smile. It wasn't a complete lie either, she loved both of those heroes, too.

"All Might is my personal favorite, too!" Izuku wished he could have answered differently but erred on the side of caution with his previous experience being his guide. "I'm surprised to see that someone else is helping out, but I haven't seen you here before. Are you from out of town?" He had noticed that she had a slight hint of an accent, but didn't want to point it out and appear rude.

"Yeah, I'm here to take the UA entrance tomorrow."

Izuku was surprised to meet another examinee aside from Katsuki.

"You too?"

"Wait… you're taking the exam tomorrow, too?"

"Yeah, me and my best friend have been planning to go to UA since we were kids!"

Both laughed, surprised that they had a fair amount in common already. Izuku tried to get up in hurry but forgotten about the pain his foot.

"Ugh..."

Ochako suddenly remembered that she was the cause of this and could feel the guilt starting to eat at her.

"Oh, again I'm so sorry about that. Here let me help you," she said, getting up and offering her hand.

"Ah...Thank you – uh..." Izuku now realized that even after talking so casually to this girl he had just met, he didn't get her name or even introduced himself.

Ochako looked at him thinking the same thing.

"Heheh! I'm Ochako Uraraka, and it's nice to meet you..."She said nervously; "despite me being the reason you got hurt."

"And I'm sorry for talking so much without properly introducing myself. I'm Izuku Midoriya, and like I said please don't worry about it! I just really need to stop being so jumpy." He let out a small, shy laugh. He took her hand and expected to for her to pull, only for him to start floating slightly.

"Whoa!"

"Careful now. Don't worry, I'm just using my quirk so you can avoid putting weight on your foot. Sorry for not asking, though."

Izuku was far from angry. Instead, he was excited to see her quirk in action, especially after moving that fridge from earlier with ease.

"Wow, so does your quirk allow you to float things and move them?"

"Kind of, I can shift the direction where gravity pulls an object by nullifying its weight to make it float, and add or subtract from one object to another that is under my influence."

"WOW! That could be so useful in so many ways!" He exclaimed. This caught Ochako off-guard; her quirk wasn't that flashy, with the only people who ever complemented it was her parents, one of her classmates who was quirkless, and that boy from ten years ago. She slowly brought him up and aligned him up with the ground and gently released her quirk on him.

"Whoa.." Izuku lightly stumbled in place, but Ochako hadn't physically let go of him just in case he fell over.

"Oh, I really hope I didn't just mess up your chance to take the exam tomorrow." Ochako said, looking down on the ground sadly.

"I wouldn't worry about it."

_'My foot was shifted, so might hurt right now, but it's not broken, for sure.' _Izuku had gotten better with shifting his limbs without tearing up his clothing. But with **One For All** now a part of him, he didn't have much of a choice he had to adapt.

"Let's at least get some ice on it! Come, my apartment isn't that far from here!" Ochako quickly got her quirk back on Izuku again, and basically dragged him in the air to her apartment.

"Wait, what?!" Izuku was clearly not ready for this girl's antics, hell he barely even knew her and now he being taken to her apartment! "I said I was fine!"

"Ya' don' have to pull da' tough guy act with me!" She laughed, her accent slipping through. Ochako could be helpful to a fault, but she could easily just get a bit of ahead of herself as well.

When they arrived at her apartment, she finally realized something as she turned the key to unlock the door.

_'Oh my gosh, I bought boy to my apartment...and a complete stranger, too! No! I'm pretty sure he's nice, and isn't gonna be pullin' any funny business... I think...? Nothin' Gunhead martial arts couldn't deal with, just in case...!"_

"Um...Uraraka?"

"Gah!" Ochako yelped, snapping out of her thoughts.

"I said, I was okay... You didn't need to go so far to help me," Izuku said sheepishly while lightly scratching the back of his head.

That was enough for Ochako to snap out of her little funk. She opened the front door, had their footwear set by the entrance before sitting Izuku down on a chair by the kitchen sat there awkwardly, his eyes locked on the ground and not looking around her apartment for fear of coming off as creepy, while Ochako opened the freezer door and got one of her cold compress gel packs and handed it over to him.

He simply accepted the pack with a small nod and a thanks, knowing better to argue with the girl at this point given how direct she had been to help him. Izuku had to admit that at the very least, she had been very kind to him so far, which made him feel slightly more at ease.

He took off his sock and pulled the left leg of his sweatpants up to place the cold pack on his foot. It was mildly bruised, but nothing that Izuku hadn't dealt with before. Fortunately, the cold pack was already starting to help with the swelling.

"Better, I hope?"

He looked up to see Ochako offering a bottle of water to him. He didn't realize just how thirsty he was until he saw the water bottle.

"Much better, thank you!" He said before taking a drink.

Soon, an awkward silence fell on them once again. Honestly, it was a miracle that Izuku had been able to do this at all. He had been able to talk casually to girls at school before, but not full-blown conversations or physical contact.

_'I held a girl's hand!'_

Ochako tried to break the ice with something basic.

"So, what's your quirk? Some kind of super strength? That's what it looked like when I saw you lifting the fridge."

_'Oh crap, how do I answer this?' _Izuku thought to himself. Dragon Shift and One for All? Both were kept secret for their own reasons. Then again, could he really call them by those names anymore? After what happened? Even All Might wasn't sure about it anymore, he decided to wing it.

"Y-y-yeah! You got it right, it's a strength quirk that improves my muscle and bone density."

He wasn't lying, just leaving out the more specific, important details like his scales and claws, or the super strength of All Might. As he took another drink of water, Ochako replied with.

"That's awesome! You should be able to get to UA without a problem."

"Thanks," Izuku said with a light blush. "I could say the same with your gravity quirk, too."

**Growl… ~**

Izuku's blush on his face just got redder; he had been out there for while, and had skipped breakfast in favor of a brunch after cleaning the beach. Except he wasn't the only one, with Ochako's face blushing deep red as well with her hunger made known.

Looking at each other, they shared a giddy laugh again.

"Did you skip breakfast too? I could make something for both of us," she said, offering breakfast since he clearly didn't get a chance to eat because of her. She couldn't help but to still feel guilty about it, her accidental mishap basically crippled him for the time being.

"Yeah, I'm getting hungry, but no thank you. I should go home so I can eat, but thanks a lot for the cold pack," Izuku said, quickly slipping his sock back on and trying to get up, only for the pain to surge when he put weight on his left foot.

"Wait! You're still hurt!"

Izuku tried to ignore it, as he already had caused enough trouble for the girl and wasn't about to impose her for breakfast. Sure, he was poor, but he could still make something simple at home. At least, so he thought until he tripped.

Thankfully, Ochako had some pretty solid reflexes and caught the poor boy before he fell on the ground again. Izuku could almost sense defeat, but Ochako had an idea on why Izuku wanted to decline her offer for breakfast. His pride on relying on others; she knew that most people, even humble ones, had some sort of pride that made it hard for them to accept help as they could perceive it more as a handout. Keeping that in mind, she came up with a compromise that could help them both out.

"How about this?"

Izuku looked up, his face still red from her surprisingly strong grip on him.

"Like you noticed earlier, I'm still kind of new in town and I can use someone to help me find places, like stores and restaurants and what not. How about you help me out, and can we eat at a local place nearby? I mean if we both get into UA, then we'll most likely be working together, right?"

She said with a bright smile, a smile that was too much for Izuku to handle, as his face clenched rather drastically.

"Okay," Ochako began to laugh, "that's a bit ugly."

Izuku couldn't find a fault with her logic, and he, too, was getting hungry. It would be best to get her help with moving until his foot felt better, and not to mention that they would be already working together if they both got into UA, so it wouldn't hurt to be friends and she already seemed nice enough.

"Okay, then," Izuku relented, with a sigh and a small smile. "I know a nice place around the corner that is pretty good. It nearby the mochi sho –"

"Mochi?! YES! LET'S GO!" She exclaimed, suddenly pulling him along again. There was nothing that could stop Ochako from having her favorite treat. When they stopped by the entrance to put on their shoes and head out the door, one could say that was an it was an odd day for both heroic hopefuls, but not a dull one for sure.

If only they knew just how much their lives would change the next day, not knowing that their fates where now intertwined thanks to this unknown reunion.

* * *

Mitsuki Bakugou was doing her rounds of shopping today.

It wasn't often she got an extra day off, and knowing that tomorrow was a big day for the two young boys she loved dearly, she found it in herself to buy the ingredients for an extra special breakfast tomorrow morning. She had already worked out the details with Inko, Yuu and Ryuko to surprise the two of them before they headed out to UA to take their entrance exams.

As she walked with a full shopping bag when she had swung by a nearby bakery, wanting a warm drink to help her during the rather chilly spring day.

"Good morning ma'am. What can I get for you today?" Asked the rather young-looking blonde cashier, who had amber eyes and tanned skin.

"Just a hot coffee, and drown it to hell with cream and sugar, please." Mitsuki said, letting out a tired yawn.

"Okay, that'll be ¥ 780,* please." The girl answered with a small curt bow.

"Damn, that better be a good cup of coffee," Mitsuki grumbled as she pulled out her wallet for payment.

"Thank you! It'll be ready in just a few moments." The girl said before heading to back to start brewing. Mitsuki nodded and left to find a spot to sit and relax for a moment. She was about to sit at an empty table when she heard something. A voice... specifically, _a very familiar voice._

'Izu?' Mitsuki thought to herself making her she wasn't just hearing things.

She looked around when she finally spotted the said green-haired boy sitting… with a girl?! They had a corner booth with Izuku facing away from Mitsuki's position. Taking his line of sight to her advantage, she in turned now spied on the two with great interest. They were talking so casually, it completely took Mitsuki by surprise. Just who was this mystery girl and what kind of spell was she weaving on Izuku to make him sound so relaxed?

_'Oh, Yuu is _so_ going to get a kick out of this.' _

She thought to herself as she pulled out her phone and started to record the two.** Her eyes were filled with mischief, completely forgetting about her coffee order. The barista, known as Jou Mori,*** simply stood there with the drink on hand when she came upon this odd sight before her.

With a knowing sigh, and not in the mood to deal with this weird customer, she plotted for a better idea. Putting the drink to the side, she went to the very backroom area. She could hear the loud groans of her boyfriend working out for the UA entrance exam, and the sounds of him lifting the weights they had set up to work out in shifts.

"Hey Riki!" She called to him. The young man in question was tall and muscular, with short spiky brown hair and very pronounced lips.

"What's up Pani?" Rikidou asked he set his workout gear down and grabbed a towel nearby and wiping his face with it.

"I got a weirdo lady spying on the other customers."

Rikidou sighed with a furrowed brow. "Why don't you handle it?"

"Last I checked, I did handle the last time a weirdo was here."

Rikidou simply hummed in response.

"Fine." He resigned as he quickly refreshed up and replaced his shirt for a clean one. "Do we got any cookies? Just in case I need the extra muscle?"

"I set a few brownies on the side for you, hunny bunch," the girl answered as she gave Rikidou a wink before walking back up to the front.

"God, I hope this isn't another weirdo stalker type." Rikidou said to himself. Working in his family's bakery had its perks, but every now and then you get the difficult customer, which wasn't limited to random perverts and just creeps in general that need to be dealt with. Thankfully, few people were willing to pick a fight with someone who's as musclebound like Rikidou Satou. Plus, with his sugar-based quirk that he could use to boost his strength wasn't a bad back up either. As long as he was in his family's private property, specifically the bakery itself, he could use his quirk only if necessary.

"Or it could be worse, like that one psycho." He shuddered when he remembered last time he had dealt with a girl who once stalked her ex into the shop.

Rikidou put on a green employee apron and stepped past the coffee bar. It seemed obvious which customer Jou was talking about, but what really threw him off was that it was a rather curvaceous middle-aged woman with ash blond hair that was spying on and giggling at the two teens, around his age, sitting in a booth nearby and completely unaware of her actions. Puffing up his chest ever so slightly, Rikidou walked up to confront the lady.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" He said, attempting his best firm voice.

He couldn't see the woman's face, but she suddenly went very quiet. Slowly, she turned her head to face the young man who slowly started to feel very, _very small_. The fearsome aura she radiated made Rikidou almost cringe with fear, with his bowels feeling like they turned to water. This lady, despite being much shorter and far thinner in terms of muscle mass, exuded an aura of intimidation that he felt could break him. Her eyes that pierced through him like if they were lasers threatening earth shattering destruction,** a grand villainess or mother to a great villain or maybe just the devil herself.**

"What?" She spoke without rising her voice, but that contained his doom if, heaven forbid, he said the wrong thing.

"Uhmm..." Rikidou started stammering out, sweat collecting on his brow as he continued staring into those terrifying and yet entrancing blood red eyes. Finally, Rikidou answered praying to any deity that would listen.

"Your coffee is ready ma'am!" He managed to say, swiftly grabbing the hot cup on the bar and shakily handing it to her.

In an instant the woman's wrathful aura disappeared, replaced with grateful smile.

"Oh! That's right!" Mitsuki said upon realizing she had indeed forgotten all about her order. Checking the time on her phone, she realized had she been there a lot longer than originally planned. Not that any of that mattered, she had more than enough material to work with.

Mitsuki graciously accepted the coffee and took a sip.

"Ah...yeah...that's the good shit." She said as she took a relaxed look while she drank.

"Is there anything else I can help you with, ma'am?" Rikidou quickly asked praying again to said random deities that she would answer no.

"Nah, I'm good. Thanks anyway, big boy." Mitsuki said with a wink before leaving the bakery. The moment she left, Rikidou turned to see his girlfriend standing there looking impressed, however Jou could also see the mental anguish on his pale face. Without a word, Rikidou sped into the back room with the greatest need to use the restroom he ever had.

After about half an hour had passed Jou checked on her boyfriend who was still in the bathroom.

"Riki? You okay in there?"

"Yeah..." He answered; his voice muffled from behind the door.

"You sure?"

"I felt like I met death incarnate today. Given that I only spent like ten minutes crying in here, I'd say that's a good sign."

Jou couldn't help but awkwardly laugh.

"At the very least, I don't feel as nervous about taking the exam tomorrow now," Rikidou added.

"I suppose so," Jou said with a stifled laugh and a roll of her eyes.

"You used your quirk on the coffee, didn't you?" Rikidou suddenly asked, making her laugh again only this time more nervously.

"Pani! We could get in serious trouble for that...!"

"It's not like she noticed! If anything, she should be on cloud nine by now!" Jou tried to reason.

"Putting your sweat into the stuff you make to give them a boost isn't the cleanest job, you know..."

"HEY! You know for a fact, I had it checked out. It's sterile!" Jou said while pouting rather dramatically feeling just a bit hurt by the comment.

"It's risky! Until you get completely tested of all the effects..."

"And that's why we're going to UA!" She answered with a huff before deciding to leave Rikidou be and checking back in at the bakery.

The two teens were still chatting the day away, completely unaware of the weirdo who had stalked them earlier. She considered telling them, but seeing them so carefree seemed like the wrong move. She took into consideration that it may put a damper on the mood, and at worst could give off that the shop has a poor reputation. After all, it really wasn't her business to pry what was going on between the two teenagers and the older woman.

Jou brushed it off as an odd situation and left the two be as she tended to the storefront.

* * *

"Kurogiri."

Tomura Shigaraki called out just as he finished off his drink. He had plenty of time to think over his latest plans. Now that he knew for sure All Might was going to be teaching in UA, thanks to some very useful government leaks, he knew that he need to get his affairs in order before the league's official debut on the grand stage.

In a matter of seconds, the back of bar began to distort with a mass of black smoke appearing. The glowing yellow eyes of Kurogiri had opened, following the rest of his physical body in his trademark suit.

"Yes, Tomura?" He beckoned, ever so calmly with the smallest of bows.

"How are the plans coming along?" Tomura began as he motioned for a refill of his drink. Kurogiri first began setting up the bar to supply his mixed drink, answering as he began the process.

"I have the new agent ready for his assault tomorrow. I handed the files and a spare burner."

Tomura grinned. He was pleasantly surprised with their newest recruit, who so happened to have the perfect quirk for the job needed to be done.

"Good. I know the Master felt the need to lay down the law with that rogue crew of birds. And the rest?"

"Giran is busy keeping the government in our favor. Although, with the recent waves of protests, we may have our preferred parties cut short. On that note, we also have gotten wind that some people have been investigating into the last battle with the master."

Tomura chuckled at that answer, he remembered the initial resistance for Giran doing some lobbying, but now it seemed as if he found his calling. "Funny, when the puppets think they're in charge while we pull the strings. I did the math and, unless they lose big time, they will still have the majority.

"Now, as for the rats looking for cheese…" He continued, "well, once we know which ones are squeaking, it will be simple to bait and trap them... And before I forget, any luck with the last ace?"

"We have been tracking his movements. Our sources with the police have mentioned a plan to apprehend him." He completed Tomura's refill and handed it to him. "Chief-Superintendent Doumeki is currently heading the operation."

Tomura slowly drank, mulling over and enjoying the taste.

"We simply need to beat him to it. Otherwise, two out three so far isn't a bad place to start. At least until we know otherwise."

Kurogiri stood silent. He was worried if Tomura could be trying to bait him, by mentioning his _brother. _Tomura sat their silently as he continued his drink. Kurogiri simply stood there while he didn't have as many features that would give away his current thought process, he knew that with it came down to it, he would rather not deal with an angry or moody Tomura.

"Ah, _now this_ I had almost forgotten." Tomura suddenly said, making Kurogiri flinch.

"How is my dear little brother doing? Is our beloved broken prince enjoying his new assignment?"

"He's securely in his assigned position, and is going to take the UA exam tomorrow." Kurogiri swiftly recovered and managed to answer calmly.

"Heh."

"Do you disprove of the plan?"

"The general idea is solid. Infiltrating UA, especially with All Might being our target, all the better... However."

"However?" Kurogiri repeated.

Tomura took a look at his glass seeing how much he had left before draining it. Breathing out a heavy gasp, before answering,

"It won't last long. Sooner or later, he'll get outed. Especially if we move one too many times under his direction."

"And here, I thought you would like a chance to eliminate him once and for all?"

"Don't get me wrong, Kurogiri. In the end, I _will _kill him or maybe even keep him alive long enough to make him into a Noumu."

"He still doesn't know about the Noumu, does he?"

"When the Master showed me what happened to all our old siblings... I felt strangely nostalgic. Heheh, and on that note, I'm still not sure on what to do with that psycho. The Master won't let me kill her, and he won't turn her Noumu." Tomura looked annoyed with situation.

"At the very least I can use her as a bargaining chip. He's always tried so hard to save all of them. And that's the issue in the end... After all he's much too soft for his own good, and that will soon be his end."

* * *

Author's Commentary

*780 yen approx. $7 US at the time of writing.

**Recording people without permission in Japan is illegal, due to rather strict privacy laws.

***Jou Mori: So this is one of the few OC's that will have a very minor supporting role in this story.  
She based off a character from the video game that inspired this story.

The character from that game was named Regina Dubios and she served as the chef to a popular joint that the party would find recipes and ingredients to make boosting effects for when you traveled to the games dungeons.

Her quirk **Cooking+** is similar in that aspect, with the things she makes getting mixed in with a bit of her sweat that creates a boosted effect, depending with what kind of food her sweat mixes with.

Even her name is a call back to the game. Regina is Latin for Queen, Jou is one of my many possible readings for the Japanese word for Queen.

Dubios is a name of English/French origin (Norman and Huguenot) if you want to get technical, meaning "Of the wood or woods" Mori is another such reading for "forest" or "woods".

Hence the name Regina Dubios became Jou Mori.

So this is another revamped chapter originally _**Chapter V**_ in the old version, with a slightly reworked scenes, more overall context and foreshadowing, and two additional scenes.  
All my readers from my previous version already know what to look forward to in the next two chapters with a missing cinnamon roll to complete the trio.

**_Chapter X: The Exam _**will be out on 5/24/2019 I hope you look forward to that.

As always my dear readers with lots of love.

**-X**


	10. The Exam

I'm a couple hours early, but it is the 24th in most of my country by now so screw it.

I don't have much to say but I hope you enjoy the chapter. **_Chapter XI_** will be out on 5/27/19

* * *

Reviews: Again only a small handful, but I appreciate them still none the less.

* * *

Unfortunately I haven't been able to read anything new recently that has really made an impact to where I could recommend or in the case of others, are clearly more popular than my own story. So I'll just leave this section blank for now.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc I: Origins**_

_**Chapter X: The Exam**_

* * *

__**"The Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step."**__

**_**-Lao Tzu **_**

* * *

The young man sat there, bright and early in his hotel room with an extra phone receiving his first real assignment for his new..._job._

_"You have your instructions yes?"_ He heard a raspy voice say over the phone.

"Yeah, hit the place hard while some of the best pro-heroes are at UA today."

_"Good... my sources say you're one of the best one at cleaning up filth."_

The man looked over some of the files he had been given, including pictures of several men wearing bird like masks.

"Well... I might leave a bit dust and ash, but not much else."

_"Make sure the boss survives, I need him alive to use him for another plan of mine. However, the more of his expendables you get rid of, the higher your bounty – as promised._"

He looked over to find the picture of said _boss. _The name "_**Overhaul,**__"_ boldly written above his head.

"Done."

_"Do this well, and your membership to the league is assured._"

"And if any civies or pros get in the way?"

_"Avoid both if possible, but the most important thing is that you avoid getting your face seen, and don't get caught."_

The man paused, thinking over an answer that would satisfy the villain.

"Ashes it is, then."

_"Heheheheh! You crack me up, you pyro."_

He hung up the phone and, with a casual flick of his hand, made it burst into blue flames.

"Heh, I give a whole new meaning to the term burner phones." He looked at the sheet of paper with the address he's about to strike, and the location of the safe house to retreat to when the job is done.

Dawn was approaching, and he wouldn't need to strike until later in the afternoon, at least once he gotten the sign that the key pro-heroes were decided to use the time he had on hand to get his gear ready and rest up. The job could be messy, but his fire should have been more than enough to do it.

* * *

Izuku woke up bright and early, as usual. But today was no ordinary day. Izuku has been waiting for this day for years and at last, it has finally arrived.

The UA entrance exam. He hopped out of the bed carefully as his left foot was still a little sore from yesterday. And yet, he couldn't help but wake up in a good mood. His encounter with Ochako had gone so much better than expected, and he even wound up getting her phone number.

"Izuku, are you awake?" He heard his mother call out to him.

"Yeah. I'm gonna hop in the shower!"

"Okay, I'll go get breakfast started!"

"Thanks!"

Izuku was moving rapidly, quickly getting ready for the big day. The test wasn't for another few hours, but when your filled with nervous energy, one tends to go overboard, and this is Izuku Midoriya we are talking about. One hot shower and a change of fresh new clothes later, Izuku stepped out of his room and into the living room, only to be surprised by a number of guests in his home.

While his mother Inko worked in the kitchen making breakfast, Katsuki was sitting at the table waiting for Izuku with a grin on his face as he waited for him. Katsuki's mother, Mitsuki, sat in the living room with Yuu and Ryuko.

"Oh hey! You're all here!" Izuku chirped out happily.

"Izu! How's my favorite little cousin doing?" said Ryuko, getting up from her seat and giving him a big hug.

"Great, Kyu." Izuku returned the hug to his cousin, who had always been an like an older sister to him.

"Of course! We're all here for you, Izu. Also, I gotta make sure to wish you luck and make sure this one doesn't kill anyone before the exam," Mitsuki half-joked, pointing at Katsuki and eliciting laughter from both Yuu and Ryuko. "Just make sure you to take over this job when you get to UA."

Normally, Katsuki would've immediately returned fire, but refused to act up in Inko's house, out of respect for her and instead settled with a silent growl and crossed arms. And it _totally_ didn't have anything to do with Ryuko being there, and it wasn't like Katsuki couldn't help wanting to act just a bit more mature while in her presence – yep, _totally nothing to do with that whatsoever!_

"Oh, and Izu honey," Mitsuki added, "Masaru wanted to come, but he wasn't able to get the time off work for it. He wishes you good luck, too." She too got up to give a hug to Izuku as well.

"Okay boys! Breakfast is ready!" Inko called out with several plates lined up for everyone. "This should be enough to get you two through the day!"

"Thanks, Mom!"

"Thanks, Auntie."

A full, western breakfast with eggs, toast, and a few select cured breakfast meats were on today's menu. Katsuki being Katsuki, of course, started off with unloading his eggs and sausage with copious, ungodly amounts of hot sauce. Izuku, not wanting to regret using the restroom later, settled with a bit of salt and pepper to season his meal.

As Inko continued serving everyone else breakfast, Mitsuki took the chance to curiously ask a rather personal question for the boy she saw as a second son.

"Soooo... Izu, what have you been up to lately?"

Izuku didn't hear that layer of mischief in Mitsuki's voice nor did he see the wicked grin that was forming on her face.

"Good, Auntie. I'm just doing my usual routine of studying and training." Izuku answered as he took his first bite of his food.

"Oh? Are you sure that is all that you've been doing?"

Izuku paused his chewing as his eyes narrowed ever so slightly, now suspicious as he began to see the smirk that slowly grew on her and Yuu's faces. The same smirk that always warned Izuku of something coming.

'_They are about to tease the hell out of you!'_

"Yeah... why?" Izuku answered with a quick gulp.

"Oh really? Because I swear, I saw you yesterday with a rather cute girl," Mitsuki's eyes glinted in the light. "Having breakfast and having quite a lot of fun, if that laughter from both of you was any indication."

Izuku tried to keep a straight face, but the dark red blush that spread like a fire on his face betrayed him.

"Izuku!" He could hear his mother cry out, "you have a girlfriend?!"

"W-w-w-wait!"

"Ooooooh, Izu! You naughty boy! Not even letting Momma Inko know!" Yuu joined in, as she had already seen the video Mitsuki had recorded yesterday at the bakery. "Who's this mystery girl's name?"

"I-I-It's not like th-that, I-I mean, ah!" Izuku's stuttering was now at full gear now.

"Aw, Kacchan," Ryuko asked, turning to Katsuki. "You know anything about her?"

Katsuki only allowed three people in this world to call him _"Kacchan":_ the woman who just made him breakfast, his best friend, and the woman had he has had a deeply-held crush on since he was eight years old.

"I don't know anything," he grumbled, a light blush gracing his face as he turned away and kept eating, unable to look at the Dragoon hero in the face. "I haven't seen any girls that talk to Izuku at school."

He was getting a bit annoyed at this sudden change; Izuku hadn't mentioned anything about this last night and wasn't denying it now either. He had more than enough reason to be concerned, even if he would never openly admit it.

Days right after the slime villain attack, several people had caught Izuku's rescue on video and it went viral online for nearly a whole month. Shit, it even spawned a short-lived series of memes on social media following the next few weeks.

At school, it quickly proved that Izuku wasn't quirkless, as many previously thought and presumed. Although, quite a few shallow students, -_especially with some girls_, who now thought that they could strike gold with the shy, nervous boy. Since only now did everyone only now see his potential as an up and coming pro-hero, students came out of the woodwork to begin hanging out and hitting on him in ways that made Izuku feel really uncomfortable.

Thankfully, many of them wound up backing off, thanks to Katsuki's rather aggressive efforts.

_'Goddamn skanks!'_

He wasn't about to let anyone of the people who did been pricks to Izuku for years only now become completely two-faced since they could now get something out of him. At the very least, it was fortunate that no one made the connection with Draco Knight, much to the relief of both families.

Izuku finally managed to find his voice and managed to squeak out, "Sh-she's from out of town, I met her yesterday at the beach –"

"Ooooh, the beach! Inko, come on! You may already have future daughter-in-law lined up!"

"That is pretty romantic for a first meeting! Better him than this one, am I right?" Yuu commented, poking at an irritated Katsuki and knowing full well that she was taking advantage of him being far more docile in Inko's apartment than at home.

"Oh, come now! I'm sure even Kacchan will find a girl that will be sweet on him, too!" Ryuko teased.

Inko could only make muttering sounds that mixed somewhere between being joyful and yet fearful that she was going to be replaced in her son's life.

"Mom! It's not like that!" Izuku pleaded. "She's just here to take the entrance exam, too!"

"Are you sure, Izu? I believe, I did see you eating breakfast with the lass…" Mitsuki said between laughs. "That sounds like a date to me."

"Yep you do work fast, Izu," Yuu nodded in agreement while giving the green haired boy a wink.

Inko looked as if she was on the verge of a heart attack. "My baby is all grown up!" She cried.

Izuku had finally gave up trying to explain himself, and simply settled to just finish up breakfast. The both boys ate and endured more teasing from their families until they at last, they finished up and got ready to head out.

It was nearly an hour-long train ride to get to UA, so they made sure to leave early with plenty of time to spare. One more round of hugs and best wishes were given to both boys as they were heading out the door.

"Izuku, I'm so proud of you, and I know your father would be, too." Inko had finished with tears of pride in her eyes.

"Thanks, Mom."

"It's simple, Katsuki," Mitsuki told her son firmly. "Win and show no mercy."

"Damn right," he answered back with a confident smirk.

As the two boys left the apartment, the Midoriya household continued to buzz a bit more over the sudden development of Izuku's love life, until Ryuko had to leave herself.

"Going on patrol?" Inko asked, cleaning up dishes left from their big breakfast.

"Nope," She answered back to everyone's surprise, "I'm actually going to UA as well."

"Why's that?" Yuu asked as she helped clear the table.

"I'm one of the invited guest pros invited to watch over the practical exam," Ryuko said with excitement.

"And you're just now telling us?" Mitsuki raised an eyebrow, sounding a bit annoyed.

Ryuko only laughed it off, "I wanted to keep it a surprise! Oh, and that being said! I'm gonna invite the boys out to eat after the exam to celebrate. Is that okay with both of you?"

"Sure, go nuts." Mitsuki shrugged dismissively, knowing full well her son would leap at such a chance to dine with Ryuko and would most likely destroy anything that would get in the way of that.

"I'm fine with that too, thank you Ryuko." Inko nodded as well.

* * *

As the two boys made their way to the train station, they were filled with anticipation of the entrance exam and talked in order to psyche themselves up.

"This is it Izuku! Eleven long ass years, but it's finally time! The start of our debut." Katsuki's voice brimming with confidence.

Izuku answered back, his voice steady but still clearly nervous, "We still got to pass our test first, Kacchan."

"Tch, you make it sound like there's even a chance that we'll fail. Get those ideas of failure out of your head and only think of victory."

"Yeah, you're right," Izuku quietly kept his thoughts to himself,

_'If only you really knew what my idea of victory was.'_

"You got a handle on your quirk now, right?" Katsuki changed the subject; "even after the mutation?"

"Yeah, all the beach training really helped out with that."

Izuku hated keeping the truth about **One For All** a secret from his best friend, but he wanted to keep the faith All Might entrusted on him. Maybe in the future, he could ask All Might for permission to let him know. Of all the people who should know, Katsuki had to be one of them.

"So...who _was_ your mystery girl from yesterday?"

"Wah...!" Izuku groaned, immediately covering his face, "not you too..."

"Chill out man, I'm not gonna tease ya' that much, not like the Old Bat," he lied with smirk, as his plans were to tease him way harder later after the exams were finished.

"Like I said back home, I met her at the beach and found out she is here to take the UA entrance exam too and she really is from out of town."

"I wonder why she's specifically _out here _instead of staying closer to where UA is…"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'm just saying to keep your guard up," Katsuki frowned; "remember those skanks from school earlier this year?"

"Kacchan, she isn't like that," Izuku countered. "She's really nice!"

"If she's taking the exam, then she's competition. Therefore, she's another person we need to take out."

"Hey!"

A familiar voice called out from behind, one Izuku knew well by now. They turned to see Ochako, now running up the street to catch up with them. Izuku waved back at her and stopped to let her catch up, unlike Katsuki who simply slowed his pace a bit to observe their new development.

'_Chocolate brown hair and eyes, a round face, light blush and...makeup?'_

And what surprised him was the wide smile on Izuku's face.

_'For only knowing her one day, the way you're smiling says a lot, Izuku._'

"Morning, Midoriya!" He heard her say.

"Morning, Uraraka," Izuku greeted back kindly.

"Oh, hi there!" She turned around, noticing Katsuki. "Are you Midoriya's friend?"

He turned his head with a huff, and continued walking.

"Yeah, Round-Face. That's me."

"R-R-Round face?"

Ochako was left stunned by the ash blond boy's answer. Izuku had mentioned before about his friend being a bit rough around the edges, but she didn't see this coming, especially how Izuku had talked him up so much.

"Kacchan, don't be rude!" He then faced Ochako with a sheepish face, "I'm sorry about that, Uraraka. He's like that with almost everyone. He'll warm up to you in time."

Ochako pouted a bit while folding her arms, Izuku was so nice and had expected his friend to be similar, so ultimately she chose to believe in him.

_'I hope this doesn't take too long. A nickname should always be shorter than someone's actual name!'_

It wasn't long when the trio arrived at the train station and boarded to start the longest part of their journey to UA. Katsuki sat across from the other two and continued his observation of both Izuku and Ochako, who seemed to have a fun time exchanging pleasantries. But then he heard something that put him on edge.

"Is your foot feeling better?" She heard him ask, causing Katsuki to focus on what they were saying.

"Yeah, it's still a bit sore, but I can walk around no problem."

"What does she mean by that, Izuku?" Suddenly, Katsuki interjected into their conversation; "what's this about your foot?"

The two turned back to face Katsuki, who had a look that radiated anger.

"Oh! It's nothing too bad, Kacchan!" Izuku quickly waved his hands, "it was an accident! And she helped me around most of the day yesterday to make sure it didn't get worse!"

"Don't dodge the question."

"When I met Midoriya by the beach," Ochako now interjected now trying to explain; "I accidentally surprised him when he was getting rid of the trash on the beach and he dropped the refrigerator he was lifting onto his foot."

Izuku knew exactly what Katsuki was trying to get at, so before he could say anything he swiftly cut him off.

_**"Katsuki."**_

Katsuki froze in disbelief. Izuku meant serious business if he dropped the nickname.

"Look, I know what you said earlier, but it isn't like that. She honestly didn't know I was taking the test until after the accident, and like I said, she spent most of the day with me to make sure I was okay."

Ochako wasn't sure what they were talking about, but left it alone since the tension between the two was heating up. She sat back quietly, not wanting to be the cause of two friends getting into a fight. Katsuki looked at Izuku and saw the determination in his eyes. The two rarely argued or fought, and right now it was less of a disagreement and more Katsuki just trying to look out for his friend. In the end, Katsuki backed off.

"Tch, fine," he finally answered, leaning back with crossed arms. The tension instantly lifting between the two, and Izuku felt relief wash over him.

During middle school, Katsuki had tried to help Izuku out with girls at school long before the slime villain incident, but nothing ever had caught on. And yet, here he was with some random girl he just met, and he seemed to be right in his element.

_'He must be crushing hard on her already. As long as she doesn't distract him or get in our way, then I'll leave it be.'_

Soon enough, the three exited the train station and arrived at the front entrance of UA. They couldn't help but feel awestruck just to finally be there. Each one of them had their own thoughts and dreams as they entered the outer campus grounds and towards the tables with their guest passes and paperwork.

_'Time to show the world who's going to be the next number one hero.'_

_'I am here now, to be a great hero. Dad, I hope you're proud.'_

_'I'm gonna do my best to be a great rescue hero.'_

"Hey Midoriya, I have to go that table over there." Ochako said as she pointed to the booth where students from Kansai were gathering. "Good luck on the entrance exam!"

"Right! You too, Uraraka!"

As she walked away, Katsuki sensed the small look of disappointment in his friend's face. But now that she was gone, it was his turn to finally tease his friend and took advantage of the opening with a wide grin.

"Ease off, Izuku. I'm sure _your girlfriend_ should be able to pass."

He could see his friends face break out in red all over again with embarrassment.

"Kacchan!"

"What? Have you seen yourself?" He snickered, "Damn man, I haven't seen you like this in years. Not since your _'princess'_ all the those years ago."

"It's not like that!"

"She's cute though, but not my type...way too bubbly."

"It's because she isn't blonde, isn't it?"

Katsuki froze, caught off guard by Izuku's recovery. Without skipping a beat, a small yet innocent smile soon formed on Izuku's face.

"Are you ever gonna confess to Kyu? I mean, you probably don't have a chance of scoring, but you might as well get it done now than later."

Katsuki was stunned, he wasn't ready for Izuku's quick-witted comeback or the just how sharp his counterattack was. Yes, he's been nursing a crush on Izuku's cousin for years, but damn for it to be used against him like that.

"Holy shit, the hell did Round-Face do to you?!"

"Her name is Ochako Uraraka."

"It's Round-Face to me until she earns it."

"I still win today, though."

"Tch!"

The two filled out and turned in their necessary introductory paperwork and legal waivers, then headed out to a classroom to first take the written portion of the exam. The standardized test turned out to be pretty easy for Izuku to finish up, completing the test with some extra time to spare to double-check his answers before their allotted time ran out. Once the written exam was over, he soon met up with Katsuki again in front of the auditorium entrance.

"How'd you do?" Izuku asked.

"Heh, easiest shit ever. But now we finally get to the real deal." Katsuki answered with glee, now that the much anticipated practical exam was up next.

As the students settled into their seats, they could see the Pro-Hero Present Mic at the podium, welcoming all the examinees and giving a general breakdown of the exam.

"Just taking down just standard bots for points, huh? Seems too simple for the UA practical exam, there must be something they're not quite telling us yet…"

"Tch. Don't overthink it, or you'll end up tripping over your own damn feet at the finish line."

Both Izuku and Katsuki continued commenting quietly on the exam breakdown, up until they realized that they would be assigned at different battle centers.

"You better pass, Izuku."

"Same goes to you, Kacchan."

"I HAVE A QUESTION!" They both heard a rather loud voice call out and a very enthusiastic raised hand. A tall boy with glasses was seen from the crowd, standing almost perfectly at attention with his inquiry. After further breakdown of the question regarding the zero-pointer bot, the boy's attention then turned to both Izuku and Katsuki.

"And you two, the blond and green haired ones!" He pointed his finger at the duo; "you two have been talking to each other this whole time. Stop it! You are distracting the rest of us."

Katsuki was not one to take such a blunt attack so easily, especially right in front of everyone. "THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY YOU FOUR-EYED BI –"

"Kacchan!" Izuku scrambled to drag Katsuki back to his seat and quiet him down, feeling horribly embarrassed from being called out like that. "I'm so sorry about that!"

The crowd around them laughed and some even jeered at the two boys, one familiar brunette a few feet away giggling at the two's antics. After that, Present Mic carried on and finished up his introduction, dismissing to begin the practical exam.

"With all that said, GOOD LUCK!"

The two friends looked at each other and simply nodded as they separated and headed out to their respective battle centers. Izuku gathered with the crowd by the giant gates of his assigned battle center, and could see several people with all kinds of varying quirks. Izuku did his best to breathe deeply and remain calm, nervously clenching his fists in anticipation. The slight wind chill didn't help his situation, given what he was wearing.

He had already changed into his training gear that was more durable than his regular clothes and had the least likely chance of tearing up while using his quirk. A sleeveless light green shirt, with arm warmers to help cover where his scales would first form at low power. His dark green athletic shorts with red strap-on sandals that had openings wide enough to allow his foot claws to move and be able to adjust into without tearing them apart if he needed the extra power.

However, he knew that he should be able to get by just using low power. After all, he had to heed caution to avoid his more draconic features from getting revealed and risk revealing one of his biggest secrets. Looking around the crowd, he spotted Ochako, much to his surprise. Izuku felt a sense of relief seeing another familiar face in the crowd, and walked forward to go and talk with her when he felt a sudden strong grip on his shoulder stop him. The tall boy from earlier, now wearing a blue skin-tight body suit, stared him down.

"She appears to be trying to focus on the examination. What are you planning to do? Distract her?"

"Wait, no! I know her and I didn't know that she was here, too!"

"How could that be? We are supposed to be separated by school and region..."

"That's beca –"

Izuku didn't get a chance to finish, as Present Mic as called out the signal to start the exam. He whirled around to see he was already falling behind, the tall boy and the rest of the other students had already flooded through the interior of the concrete city.

_'Damn it, he distracted me!'_

Izuku couldn't waste any more precious time and ran straight ahead, his limbs charged up to fifteen percent and the rest of his body shifting into his 'light armor.' Light peach-green scales covered both his arms and legs, which had gained more muscle and length, and his hands and feet gained short claws. His whole body emitted a glow, green lighting surrounding his being, it was time.

* * *

Ochako was making quick work of the robots, her years of physical training and the month long training program with Gunhead was finally paying off. One of the one-pointer robots who had its target sights locked onto her was swiftly dealt with by her simply dodging its swing and pressing her hands against it.

"SHIFT" She yelled out as the robot was suddenly flung straight into the wall behind it; destroying it upon contact. Acting quickly she ran up to her defeated foe and began to rip out a larger piece from its metal, upon successfully ripping the metal plate from it, she used to the wires to help grip the makeshift weapon.

"SHIFT!" She yelled again this time using her quirk to launch herself toward a few other faux-villains using her makeshift shield to ram into them like a cannonball. Using a combination of her quirk and shield Ochako kept up a pattern of dodging, blocking, and counterattacks as several of these robots tried to swarm around her.

"Release!" Her exclaimed as she brought down the full weight of her weapon upon a remaining three-pointer faux-villain slicing deep into the metal with a large flash of spark shooting up.

"Ahh!" Ochako exhaled out as she took a short moment to wipe her brow and catch her breath; unaware of another three-pointer robot slowly coming up behind her for an ambush.

Although, taking a brief moment of respite to catch her breath, she was caught off-guard by a three-pointer moving in from behind. It raised its metallic limbs high ready to strike down the girl to avenge its fallen siblings.

"**TARGET LOCKED! TAKING DOWN!" **

Ochako turned into surprise, caught with her guard down and not fast enough to counterattack she simply braced herself to the blow that was coming down. A blow that never came as Izuku suddenly appeared to her right almost out of nowhere; before lunging into the robot. He quickly tore into the three-pointer leaving the large metal villain into several large twitching pieces with only a few short swings of his arms.

His work complete, Izuku simply moved on with another quick dash that was trials by a flux of wind pressure, leaving Ochako there momentarily stunned; seemingly awestruck by the display of Izuku's power. She knew that he had a strength-based quirk, but she didn't realized how strong or how fast he could really be, it almost reminded her of All Might for a moment.

"Oh crap! I need to keep going!" Ochako suddenly realized that she was simply standing there, wasting time than getting back to the exam.

* * *

Far away from all the battle centers were the council of judges and observers. All looking over the potential applicants that were being broadcast from various cameras and into the televised screens in a large and wide observation room.

"Quite a number of solid hopefuls this year."

"Yes. Unfortunately, still not as many as we would have hoped. We had far more than a handful of candidates be rejected due to their psych evaluations combined with their quirks."

"And this is just the first year with the new rule implemented."

"Still, it seems like this year's cut will be solid."

On one screen, the judges could see Izuku and Ochako, both destroying robots left and right.

And on another screen, Katsuki was in his battle center, blasting bots away with the happiest grin plastered on his face.

Throughout different angles taken in every battle center, many varying students came into view on multiple screens. A black-haired boy with golden eyes finished a pile of bots with the flames coming from his mouth. A blond boy with that seemed to shine as he shot a laser from his belly.

Among the judges were a few special guests. All Might was in his skinny, weakened form and went under the alias as 'Mr. Yagi' to those who didn't know about his secret. Endeavor and Ryukyu stood nearby, representing the top ten ranked heroes as per tradition.

They all remained silent, however, due to their last guest: Kai Doumeki, who was in attendance to oversee the exam as this year's civilian representative; a position created thanks to several reforms in educational policy in the recent years.

His mere appearance was met with almost universal displeasure to those who knew the truth. Ryukyu had hoped to enjoy watching Katsuki and Izuku's big debut, but she was now forced to be in the presence of the man who had ruined her family's legacy and livelihood. The man who betrayed Hisashi and her family, a man that Hisashi once trusted without question.

"Interesting." The room grew tense, Kai's voice catching everyone's attention.

"I see a very familiar name among them." His eyes were completely focused on the green-haired boy on one of the screens, "and I'm surprised to see that he made it, given his prior family history."

All Might tensed up but remained quiet. He knew what Kai was trying to do, and the way he voiced his opinion with the intention to take a dig at the others.

"It seems that Draco Knight's son is here. If he passes, please do make sure to take countermeasures," He finished, his face solemn. "After all, we don't want a repeat of the past now, do we?"

Before anyone else could respond, it was Endeavor who firmly spoke up.

"Doumeki, unless you actually have something worth saying, then say it." His voice was cold, laced in anger. "Otherwise. Shut. Up."

Kai shook his head, his warning falling on deaf ears. He understood why of course, but even Ryukyu should have known that Izuku would really a genuine threat if his quirk wasn't kept in check. Kai's eyes turned to look up at one of the other screens.

'A back-up plan might be in order.'

* * *

The practical exam continued when the final phase finally kicked off and the zero-pointer was unleashed at the epicenter of each battle center. Ochako looked up in shock, eyes wide as she dropped her shield.

"Nope!" She yelled as she turned to flee from the falling debris and make it to safety. "Not I'm dealing with that!"

She ran until she heard a scream and saw a familiar blonde girl with tan skin had gotten caught under the debris. Ochako froze for a moment, as she realized that the girl needed up, despite her fears as turned right back around to help.

"Don't worry! I'll get you out in just a moment! Just hang on okay?!" Ochako began saying to reassure her trapped companion as she began floating the debris way, despite more continuing to rain down on them as the Zero-pointer drew ever closer.

"T-thank you..." The girl weakly said as she held her up in her arms once the worst was off of her.

"I got you now!" Ochako said encouragingly as she grabbed her to get up. "Come on! Let's go!"

As the two started to make their escape, only barely being able stay just ahead of the giant robot that threatened to crush them. But between the impending dizziness from the heavy use of her quirk and her stamina steadily draining, in addition to her companion's legs being damaged from the debris; Ochako knew there was no way to outrun the zero-pointer at this rate.

Forced to make a quick decision, Ochako opted for a new plan as she moved her hands to touch her follow competitor.

"Wait!" The girl suddenly asked, as Ochako grabbed hold of her and picked her up in an awkward position. "What are you doing?!"

"Sorry about this!" Ochako yelled, allowing for the girl's body to float in the air before throwing her out to safety as hard she could and releasing her. Once the injured girl was catapulted away, Ochako finally fell to her knees, overcome with nausea and crudely emptied the contents from her stomach on the ground.

_'I… I can't… keep going...'_

Sensing the shadow of the giant robot towering right over her, Ochako was left paralyzed in fear and her heart rapidly sank. Her instinct was to scream, but her body could not find the strength to do so. She pleaded to herself, now collapsed between all the rubble and believing that she was witnessing her very last moments.

_'Mom…! Dad...! No, please, I'm scared! Please! Anyone, help me!'_

Then, she was suddenly blinded by a huge, flash of light, followed by a massive gust of wind and a wave of aftershock that rushed out in all directions.

**"SMASH!" **

A familiar voice ripped harshly through the air.

There was a great big **SLAM! **That was followed by the very loud groan of grinding metal, Ochako looked back .The zero-pointer was completely destroyed and the rest of what remained of it's metallic body was knocked back as the metallic shell twisted and groaned saving Ochako from her impending doom. She looked up only to se a body dropping from the sky, of someone who appeared familiar her.

It was Izuku, only he wasn't moving at all. To her horror, Ochako realized he must gotten knocked out cold from taking down the zero-pointer, and was now plummeting to his death.

"No!"Ochako struggled on her hands and knees; "I just a need to do a little more...!" Using very last bit of strength she had remaining in her body to get back up and using her quirk on herself.

She had to time it just right, Izuku's very life depended on it.

"No time for second guesses! SHIFT!"

She Launched herself with determination clear in her face, managing catch Izuku in midair, she grabbed and latched on his limp body firmly.

"I got you!" She yelled out, as she tried to get his attention, only to confirm her suspicion that he was indeed unconscious from his earlier attack.

Unfortunately for Ochako, the two had begun spinning in midair; causing her nausea kicked in again even harder than before;losing control in the direction they were flying toward. All Ochako could do was brace for impact as she at least sure enough that they were descending and released them from her quirk's influence. Only for her to hit the wall of the building on the opposite side the battle center; knocking her out instantly before they hit the ground. Fortunately for the two of them, there wasn't a large distance from the ground, but the two did land rather harshly on the cement floor.

Once the practical exam officially came to an end and the medical teams were dispatched into the various areas, Recovery Girl was quick to find the two entangled teens at the crash site. Ochako's tight grip on the boy seemed locked and unwavering as the elder support hero discovered.

She tried to have the two physically pried apart which only resulted in Izuku subconsciously latching on to Ochako instead, thus making her job much more difficult. In spite of the odd situation, this was met with much laughter from the old pro who had point that decided just to heal them now. They could take care of the rest when they woke up.

'Let's see,' Recovery Girl, thought as she began checking on the two. 'A mild concussion for the lass, and only a few scrapes and bruises for the boy...better than what I initially thought!'

A couple quick kisses later and both teens were healed albeit still unconscious, Recovery Girl simply decided to leave them and have some of the stretcher robots take them inside together.

_"These two sure are lucky to have helped each other like that. I'd imagine the betting pool this is year is going have weird odds this time around." She said to herself with a chuckle as she called for assistance. _

* * *

Back in the observation room, everyone's reactions of the destroyed zero-pointer ranged from slightly surprised to stunned silence. Ryukyu had quietly excused herself and ran out of the room to check on her cousin's condition. Meanwhile, Kai leaned against the wall, as pale a ghost.

'_Good lord... If he has...'_

Kai may have been quirkless, but he knew that quirks could get stronger with every generation. What was more unsettling was even Hisashi in his fully-armored form couldn't have pulled off something of that magnitude. And that was the scary part...if Izuku inherited the worse aspect of his father's quirk.

_'A change of plans may be in order...'_

* * *

_"Thank you. My Knight..."_

Izuku stirred with his eye lids feeling very heavy. And yet he was also feeling strangely relaxed as well, lying down on his left side in bed.

_'It's the same dream again?' __He thought as if he was walking up in his bedroom. _

He felt completely exhausted, but at the same time, he was somehow was feeling very warm and comfortable. A feeling of being strangely safe and surrounded by something that smelled very nice.

_'This is new... I don't remember my dreams feeling like this...but I'm not going to complain about it.' __He added as shuffled his body to what ever was making him feel so comfy. _As his body started regaining movement and sensations again, he could feel like there was some additional weight on himself...or wrapped around himself tightly? Though, he also seemed to have his arms wrapped around something with similar strength whatever this was...it was really nice, but very strange.

_'What… is this?'_

Izuku could now feel a very soft sensation on his left hand. Whatever it was, it was warm, soft and yet…somehow firm?

_'Okay...this is new...but what is? Thi –'_

The weight next to him stirred.

"Hmm... I donna wanna git up..." He heard a familiar female voice slur out, the strong rural accent being a dead giveaway.

That was enough to jolt Izuku awake, his once heavy eyes snapping wide open. As he immediately found himself in a very unfamiliar place and holding onto Ochako Uraraka as if his life depended on it. She, too, seemed to be doing the same to him as well.

The worst part of all was that their bodies were stuck together, strapped down to the bed with a rather large, tightly bound leather strap.

**Izuku . exe has stopped working. As all Izuku could do at this moment was just mentally scream.**

Thankfully in times such as these, a new voice tends to be Izuku's guide to readjust his thoughts. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on the situation, this new voice of reason tends to manifest in the voice of one **Katsuki Bakugou.**

_'Wha... Oh? I need t... damn I… gods...I'm losing it...losing it...okay! OKAY! OKAY!'_

_'__**IZUKU, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER! CALM THE FUCK DOWN AND FIGURE THIS SHIT OUT!'**_

**'**_Okay...think! What happened, and how did I get here like this? First things first.'_

Izuku's eyes darted around, trying his best to get his barrings.

A hospital room?

No.

A school nurses office?'

A safe bet, judging from all the academic posters that stood alongside medically-related ones.

'_Okay... I'm in the nurse's office... But this isn't my school's nurse's office, and Ochako does not go to my school... wait... It's Uraraka, NOT OCHAKO!' _

'_**GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER IZUKU! YOU GOT YOUR BARRINGS, NEXT STEP!**__'_

As Izuku was mentally fighting with himself and Katsuki's voice still trying to serve as his guide of reasoning, Ochako stirred again which caused him to stay stock still. He soon realized that his left arm was had fallen asleep from being under Ochako's side and his left hand was...

_'OH GOD, NO...!'_

Unabashedly on her butt.

_'…'_

**'… WELP I'M OUT.'**

_'No, wait! Aren't you supposed to help me?!'_

_'__** SHE AIN'T BLONDE! YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN, IZUKU…!'**_

_'WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!'_

**'TCH! FINE...! FIRST OFF, GET YOUR HAND OFF HER ASS, JACKASS!'**

_'Gah!'_

Izuku complied immediately, swiftly moving his hand off her butt and placing it flat against the shared bed. The poor boy was confused and nervous enough, and the last thing he needed was to be labeled a pervert by the first real friend he's made that wasn't Katsuki. It seemed the removal of said hand was enough for Ochako to stir awake as well.

**'WELP...WE'RE BONED...'**

Izuku could see Ochako slowly blinking awake as her own vision slowly returned to normal, only to see the eyes of a panicked Izuku Midoriya. Her face told Izuku that she was still processing everything happening in front of her. When he started to feel something odd as well... on his butt. Her hand seemed to have been doing the same thing he had just been doing as well.

_'IS SHE GRABBING MY BUTT?!'_

_**'EH, SEEMS LIKE EQUALITY TO ME! DAMN...SHE REALLY IS GOING AT IT!**_**'**

_'YOU'RE NOT HELPING!'_

After blinking a more few times, Ochako's face finally broke into the very essence of deep red after realizing what she was doing and to whom she is doing it to. She instantly let go of him and swiftly tried to back out the bed only to realize that she was stuck like him.

"Oh, gosh! Im'a so sorry! Can't believe what I was just doin' to ya! Especially after saving me – WAIT, WHY AM I STUCK IN HERE?!" She spoke rapidly only growing more panicked as tried to untangle herself from the bed.

Izuku could only blink at the girl.

_'Wait a minute… she isn't mad at me? I'm REALLY CONFUSED NOW.'_

**'TALK ABOUT A WIN! HURRY, GO FOR THE KILL AND CALL HER THE PERVERT!'**

_'SHUT UP, KACCHAN!'_

**'I AIN'T YOUR KACCHAN, JACKASS. I'M YOU, BUT WITH BALLS!'**

In the end, Izuku decided that all he could do was be honest with her.

"Saving you? What do you mean?"

Ochako suddenly stopped moving before looking at Izuku puzzled.

"You don't remember what happened? After taking down that giant zero-pointer robot?!"

"Eh?!"

'_Giant robot? What on earth is she talking about?!'_

**'IT HAPPENED AGAIN! YOU MUST HAVE GONE OVER SIXTY-PERCENT AGAIN!'**

Izuku froze, his mind filling in the blanks as Katsuki's voice disappeared back into his subconscious.

It was one of the new drawbacks with the mutation of his quirk, when _**Dragon Shift and One for All... fused.**_

His body now shifted in combination with One for All's power, which had its benefits, now that getting surprised or shocked didn't trigger light shifting anymore. But in exchange for all that raw power, his body now operated on a given time limit, so the more power he used, the less time he had. He learned during his training that using more than sixty-percent of One for All made him black-out with short-term memory loss once his armor dissipated.

_'It must have gotten bad, if I felt like I needed to pull that card.'_

"Are you okay?" He looked up to see that Ochako, who was now calm enough to begin gently undo the straps to get them out. Lost in his thoughts for a moment, he hadn't noticed that she must have calmed down, but now carried a pained look of concern on her face. "You really don't remember what happened?"

"Y-Y-Yeah. It's just a side effect of my quirk." Izuku sighed, "if I go at full power, I black out and sometimes I can't remember anything from the last few hours."

"That's pretty scary... Especially after what happened."

"Yeah..."

"Again, I'm really sorry…" Ochako pleaded as she finally finished undoing the straps, only realized that her quirk was active as she and Izuku had begun to float.

"Wah!" Izuku yelped out as he continued to gain some height as he tried to get himself back to solid ground. Ochako began to panic again.

"I'm sorry my fault! RELEASE!" She took control over her quirk and the two before fell right back into the bed with a soft poof.

Laughter broke out as the door opened to see a short old lady, followed behind with Ryuko who had a look of worry of her face.

"Finally awake? Good! I couldn't pry the two of you apart with a crowbar, so I just settled for nature to take its course." The old lady said with a mischievous wink, causing the two teens to start blushing red again. "Sorry about the straps. You two started floating away which, while cute, makes it hard to keep an eye on both of you."

"Izu!" Ryuko rushed to Izuku's side and gave a warm embrace to the blushing boy. "You scared me!"

Ochako had the strangest feeling in her chest, seeing this older, familiar-looking lady hugging him.

"Kyu, I'm fine!" Izuku gently released from her tight hug. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I came to watch the UA entrance exams!" She chirped happily. She no longer was worried, now seeing that Izuku was in good shape. "Endeavor and I were here to represent the top ten."

Ochako froze. The more she looked at the woman, the realization of who she was began to dawn on her.

"Oh my gosh, your Ryukyu! The ranked Ninth Pro-Hero!"

"Yep! That's me! The Dragoon Hero!" She happily said with a pose, making Izuku facepalm.

"Wait, how do you know Izuku?" She asked, not realizing she incidentally addressed him by his first name.

Ryuko however did take notice. She was about to spare her cousin, until she saw that his blush grow even fiercer.

"Oooh, this boy? Well you see... Izu here... is my secret lover ~!" She winked and placed a peck on Izuku's cheek. The mere action caused Ochako to back off several feet away until she practically fell on the other bed. Izuku mirrored her actions as well, backing off quick enough that he nearly fell off his side of the bed, too.

"Kyu! Don't be gross!" He exasperated, desperately hoping Ochako didn't believe in his cousin's antics, all while Ryuko began laughing hard after seeing their strong reactions. "She's my cousin! I swear!"

Ochako blankly stared, there was a lot for her to process right now. Thankfully, the old lady came to her rescue and hit Ryuko with her cane to bring some order to the room.

"Ryukyu, stop it, before you kill these two!"

Ryuko sighed. "Fine, Recovery Girl, I'm sorry."

"But for real, thank you for saving my cousin." Ryuko bowed to Ochako, then turned to Izuku. "And you! I swear, Izu! You shaved a few years off my life when I saw you drop from that height!"

"I know…. I'm sorry," Izuku apologized, sheepishly looking down.

"You two should be good to go," Recovery Girl added, "After everything that had happened, I recommend getting some food would help."

Ryuko gasped, as she remembered her plans from earlier.

"That's a great idea Recovery Girl! How about you, Kacchan and –" She turned to face Ochako. "I'm sorry, remind me of your name again?"

"Ochako Uraraka!" She introduced herself with a slight bow.

Ochako was still processing everything happening at the moment. She always wanted to meet and ask Ryukyu about Draco Knight since she had been one of his lead side-kicks before his death. But she knew that it wouldn't be right to ask about that right now, as it was a rather sensitive issue.

"Ah, and Occhan here, come with me for dinner tonight! There is a really nice place near my agency that I've always wanted to try out! My treat!"

Before anyone could reply, the sounds of rapid, heavy footsteps getting closer could be heard outside their door.

"IZUKU, WHERE THE HELL ARE YO –" Katsuki slammed open the door, only to see Recovery Girl, Izuku, Round-Face and… Ryuko, the last person he expected to run into.

"Perfect timing, Kacchan!" She waved him over with a smile, "How about dinner on me? Sounds good?"

Katsuki just blinked, not ready to hear those words in that order.

_'Shit! I am number one already or what?'_

"Sounds good to me, Ryukyu," He said, a wide, shit eating grin forming on his face. His worries over Izuku were quickly thrown out the window.

"Great! Izu, Occhan, go get dressed. We'll wait outside and go when you two are ready!" Ryuko finished up while pulling out her phone to make a reservation and walked out of the nurse's office.

Katsuki's smile faltered, realizing it wasn't just him going alone with Ryukyu and felt just a bit disappointed. But hey, he wasn't going to say no to dinner with Ryukyu, and proceeded to follow her out of the office as well.

Izuku and Ochako sat there in silence for a few seconds, mulling over everything that had just happened.

"I'm sorry about that," Izuku tried to break the awkward silence. "She can be a bit headstrong."

"No! It's okay! She's actually a bit in endearing in my opinion," Ochako admitted with a nervous laugh. "Besides, getting to eat with a pro-hero in the top ten isn't something an up and coming hero course student should refuse right?"

"You two might want to hurry up," Recovery Girl interrupted them with a chuckle to herself.

"Oh, right!" The two said in unison, causing Recovery Girl to laugh again.

"Go on then! Shoo!"

"Thank you for helping us," Izuku bowed deeply.

"Yes, thank you for taking care of us," Ochako bowed as well.

As both teens walked out, Recovery Girl wrote a quick note to herself and it put away in her desk for safekeeping.

"Seems like a solid bet to me." She quietly laughed to herself.

* * *

Another revamped chapter with some reworked scenes.

Sorry for the short commentaries guys, I'm actually dealing with rather nasty infection right now. (I'm fine, but the antibiotics are wrecking me right now)

_**Chapter XI: The Lost Child**_ will be released on 5/27/2019


	11. The Lost Child

Welp I am feeling much better! The Meds are no longer wrecking me like they did during the initial dosages. Thanks to everyone who showed concern.So one thing that I realized like an absolute moron, was I had forgotten to give proper credit to certain key things I am using!

So while not confirmed in canon there has been a running head canon among some fans that Katsuki Bakugou and Yuu Takeyama are maternal first cousins. While I do not agree with the head canon directly, I loved the idea and some of the ways that other authors have used this dynamic is one of the reasons I decided to add it to this AU, where I can screw around with the rules.

This also how I doubled-down on the idea of making Ryuko and Hisashi first cousins once removed, and therefore making Izuku and Ryuko second cousins. Although that relationship will be further explored in Draco Knight _**(Hint: Baby Dragon Ryuko is a real mischief maker) **_

Double credit goes to _**Blamedorange**_ a Trumblr user who I believe was the first to come up with the BakuYama cousin idea. While _**EverlastingEvansecence **_gets the credit for being the author that inspired me to who use of the idea for my own story.

* * *

Recommendation!

_**Bakugou, Eat a Snickers**_ by well _EverlastingEvansecence _(Jesus I just realized this guy gonna get a lot of shouts now...)

Summary is perfection: _Bakugo is in a Snickers commercial, and things don't go the way that the directors had hoped for._

It's short simple and funny as hell. Please give the man some love and check it out.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

__**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**__

__**Saga I: Dusk**__

__**Arc I: Origins**__

__**Chapter XI: The Lost Child**__

* * *

**"Feeling lost? Good! Now you get to walk new paths that lead to much better places."**

**-Robin S. Sharma**

* * *

"Thank you for the ride home, sir," Tenya said gratefully as they exited out of the car with his brother's father-in-law, who was none other than the pro-hero Endeavor.

"It was no problem. I have business with your brother, so I was planning to come here anyway," Endeavor had put fourth rather bluntly before mentally berating himself for his brashness. Lately, he had been making more of a conscious effort and trying his best to be less standoffish and a little more friendly to others.

Tenya, fortunately either didn't notice or didn't seem to mind as they both made their way into the Iida family compound. They entered the large, beautiful three-story western style house* with a large front and backyard space, settling just at the edge of the Tokyo downtown area.

"HI UNCLE TENI! HI GRANDPA!" A high-pitched voice rang out, making both of them turn around. A blue-white blur suddenly ran right past them and turned the corner into the other side of the yard.

"Ah blast!" They heard Fuyumi say as she appeared from the opposing corner leaning against the wall to catch her breath before addressing the two in front of her. "Oh! Hello Father, and welcome home Tenya! She's been running around all day and when she saw the two of you coming up from the window; she wanted to be the first one to greet you."

Endeavor hummed in reply, as he always wondered on how two normally quiet and reserved people like Tensei and his daughter Fuyumi, could have a child as hyperactive as his granddaughter Hikari.

"Tenya, I really hate to be a bother you, especially right after you just got home… but could you please catch her for me? It's almost snack time for her, and Shouto already tried using his ice," Fuyumi asked with a guilty look on her face.

In a huff and a nod, Tenya stripped off his school uniform with precision, as he still wore his blue track suit under his clothing. Endeavor held out no reaction; by now, he had long stopped questioning the number of Tenya's more... eccentric character traits. Fuyumi simply began to gather all of Tenya's things from the ground as if it was routine.

"Right! I'll catch her and bring her right back to you, sister!" Tenya said with one firm and swift arm chop before he chased after his runaway niece.

"Remind me again how he and Tensei are related?" Endeavor asked in complete and utter seriousness, causing Fuyumi to laugh.

Tenya always found his repetitive situation quite funny, running across this family compound chasing after the blue-white blur who laughed out loud as she ran. He had come from a long line of pro-heroes since before pro-heroes were official established, shortly after the phenomenon of quirks first appeared in the world. He was the result of this long-standing legacy that now included his elder brother, Tensei Iida. But the biggest change to this dynamic was when Tensei met and later married Fuyumi Todoroki, or now Fuyumi Iida as she is known these days.

Tenya continued to chase down Hikari, who came close in being the truest heir to the legacy of pro-heroes, descending from two elite pro-hero families. With that, she gave her uncle a run for his money as she laughed with reckless abandon.

"Uncle Teni! You can't catch me!"

"Hikari, please slow down! It's your snack time!"

Witnessing the two speedsters on the sidelines and chuckling at the sight was none other than Shouto, Hikari's other uncle and Tenya's close friend. He had spotted the two moments ago after getting his own snack, long after he had tried and given up on catching Hikari earlier. She proved very resourceful and clearly learning from previous chases. The young child was actually a very well behaved little girl but loved to tease her Uncle "Teni" and Uncle "Shou" to no end, Tenya especially.

"Shouto, can you please help Tenya? The poor guy has to be exhausted at this rate." Fuyumi came up from behind him as he munched away on his melon bread.

"But it's more fun to watch," Shouto turned on his classic deadpan voice.

"Shouto!"

"Fiiine. Wait, where's mom?"

"She went to get Hikari's snack."

"I think I can – oh wait, never mind. He's got her."

Upon seeing Hikari in Tenya's grasp, he got up, knowing Hikari what she was going to ask him as soon as they got inside. "Well, I'm heading inside."

"I've got you now!" Tenya proclaimed, finally managing to grab his niece from under her underarms and hoisting her upwards. Her legs continued to kick as if she was still running, screaming with laughter.

"NO FAIR!"

"NO FAIR INDEED, LITTLE MISSY!" He huffed in triumph. As he looked at his quarry and, in spite the grief she can cause him, Tenya loved his niece dearly. She seemed to have inherited most of Fuyumi's physical features, with the exception of her blue hair peppered with streaks of white along with her quirk that ran across her back which proved her Iida bloodline. Thankfully, Mei wasn't here to back her up this time.

"Come along!" He proudly said as he walked back to the house with her; "it is time for your afternoon snack!"

"Okay ~!"

Tenya, knowing his niece's mischievous nature, carried her on his shoulders to prevent her from running off again. He looked ahead and saw Fuyumi waving at them to come inside.

"Thank you, Tenya!" she called out to him.

* * *

Tensei and Endeavor sat in the former's household office, as he briefed his father-in-law about the recent update in the investigation.

"I got a witness in Kai's inner circle who can double-out out as prime source of information," Tensei said.

"Can we trust him?"

"I had to go through a lot to verify him for the last eighteen months. He is legitimate, I can assure you."

Endeavor sighed, the flames he often projected on his face were gone for the time being. Tensei picked up a newspaper and gave it to Endeavor.

"Take a look at this."

Endeavor grabbed the paper and read aloud the headline, "success rates for Doctor Yama's dream treatment clinic results grow steady... Is this important?"

"Remember what happened two days ago? What was should have been announced today?"

Endeavor pondered for a brief moment, before recalling, from their last briefing with the Hero Public Safety Commission.

_"The Hero-Killer."_

"According to my inside source, the Hero-Killer has been broken out. And yet," Tensei pointed his finger to the newspaper, "The investigative report states that he escaped while being taken to jail to await the most highly publicized trial of the year. All this happened before any public announcement was made, as if the Hero-Killer was never caught to begin with."

"You can't be serious." Endeavor tried to keep his voice steady. "Tensei, you just implied –"

"– that this may go deeper than we originally thought, Father. I know you hate the idea, but I think we need to rally with the other group **now**."

Endeavor flinched at the revelation. For the last few years, he had tried to avoid this and wanted to keep his investigation of that night independent. But if what Tensei said was true, then it was time to join forces with the group investigating the Draco Knight incident. Endeavor knew he had to push his qualms about working with All Might aside.

"Make the call," He finished getting up with plans to join the rest of the family downstairs. "And see if that fool All Might really has been working to solve this."

"Understood."

"Oh, before I forget," Endeavor paused at the doorway. "Have we gotten any word from…?"

"No. Nothing yet, but the deadline for the next drop isn't due yet, as Hawks has already checked."

"…I see."

Tensei hesitated, "... Father, I..."

"Let's not worry about this right now, Tensei." Endeavor stopped him, facing away from his son-in-law.

"We all have the parts we need to play now."

* * *

Shouto sat on the couch with Hikari on his lap. His eyes were focused on braiding Hikari's hair, a habit he had picked up after the first few times she asked him to do it. Before, he knew little to nothing about styling hair as all he ever did was pull his own hair into a ponytail and left just enough for his bangs to align with his flawless face**.

However, when it came to Hikari, Shouto learned and, by the gods, did he go out of his way to learn and perfect the art of braiding hair by endlessly watching Youtube videos and even practicing with his mother's own hair. Somehow, Shouto actually grew to be one hell of a hair stylist.

He continued his work as she watched her favorite TV show, _**Animal Buddies with pro-heroes Anima and Comicman*****_. The perfect mix of education and fun, often touted as such by many. Anima was a rescue hero who often educated kids with fun animal facts and showcased responsible quirk usage. He often used Japanese sign language to both teach children and to prevent animals nearby from being influenced by his quirk. Alongside him was his co-host Comicman, who could assist in providing the right amount of comedic gags with teaching correct Kanji and sentence structure.

As Hikari laughed away, Tenya sat on the seat nearby nodding in approval. He mildly enjoyed the show as well, finding it perfect for young minds to learn from. He himself thought that the idea of learning sign language could be an invaluable skill for a pro-hero to learn. Shouto smirked, finding the right moment to tease his friend.

"Hey Ten?" Shouto casually said.

Tenya looked at Shouto upon being addressed, "Yes, Shouto?"

"Your girlfriend called."

"Meimei!" Hikari chirped out in glee.

The color immediately drained from Tenya's face. He knew what he meant, that girl of his dreams... or more accurately, his nightmares.

"That, that she-devil of a woman is _not_ my girlfriend!" He arm-chopped away furiously as his nerves began getting the best of him.

"Well, you'll be pleased to know that she will be joining us at UA," Shouto added with a small smirk gracing his face. "Since she got accepted to the support course at the top of her class."

"Noooo!" Tenya exclaimed, his arms raised dramatically with crocodile tears running down his face. Shouto internally laughed at his anguish, while Hikari just straight up laughed at her Uncle's antics.

"WHY CAN I NOT BE FREE FROM HER?!"

"She could even be our support liaison if she's assigned to our class," Shouto continued nonchalantly.

"I'm going to die before I even make it half-way to our second year...!"

"Shouto, Rei," Endeavor's deep voice resounded as he entered the living room interrupting Tenya's cries. "It's time for us to go."

"Aww..." Hikari pouted and crossed her arms, knowing her Uncle Shou hadn't finished with her hair yet. "Grandpa's no fun."

Her comment made Shouto chuckle quietly as he tried to speed up and finish quickly.

"Are you sure you can't stay for dinner, dad?" Fuyumi asked sadly. She felt disappointed they all couldn't stay to celebrate Tenya and Shouto's secured entrance exam results. Both boys already knew they were accepted to the UA hero course, as Endeavor didn't care for pointless rules and simply flat out told Tenya that he passed during the ride to his house.

"I'm sorry Fuyumi," He said while shaking his head, "but I do have some important business to attend to, and Shouto still needs to finish up school next week since he has his finals lined up."

Simply put, Endeavor didn't have the best, most stable relationship with his family.

Yes, he loved them, but the way things began with the arranged marriage between himself and his wife Rei often made these feelings difficult to express. Both their parents had arranged for their marriage in a way that deeply hurt his pride, and he was burdened with thoughts of guilt as if he had unjustly taken her against her will. But Rei didn't hold it against him, and they managed to make their relationship work out in the end.

"Don't worry dear," Rei came to the rescue to gently reassure their daughter, "I'll make sure to work it out, so we can all celebrate Shouto and Tenya's achievements in due time. Natsuo will be coming back to visit soon, too."

"But…" Fuyumi's saddened mood only plummeted further, "it won't be all of us."

The three adults paused; tension filled the room once more.

Touya Todoroki hadn't been seen for about a year now. One day out of the blue, the young pro-hero Incendor had been declared "missing-in-action" after a strange encounter with a villain.

"There's no use in worrying about it right now," Endeavor tread the conversation lightly, "I'm sure that he will turn up sooner or later."

Unbeknownst to the two women was Endeavor's true knowledge of what his eldest son was doing, now kept secret and hidden away even to his own family.

* * *

Kai Doumeki sat on his home office on the phone as he quietly fumed and checked over some key documents of the latest pro-heroes killed-in-action by the Hero-Killer Stain. Among the profiles, were the few who was there at the great battle six years ago, with All Might and Draco Knight against All For One. On top of everything that happened today, this was the last thing he needed to hear after returning from UA.

"Goddamn it," He muttered as he heard Hajime read aloud the list over the event.

"_I'm sorry, sir." _He heard him say over the phone.

"Just how did this happen?" Kai demanded sternly, doing his best to keep his voice from yelling.

"_It must have happened during the transport."_

"He must have had help... and the guards?"

"_All confirmed dead. But none of their injuries match with his M.O. however."_

"You said their bodies were found mostly dusted and decayed. There were a number of incidents a few years ago with murders with that type of assault," Kai looked over the evidence thoughtfully. "Looks like Stain does have friends within his reach."

"_At the very least, we gotten media blackout, and no one got wind of what happened. As far as anyone knows, we looked and found nothing. The guards were killed-in-action in an unrelated event."_

"It's a flimsy cover but expected, considering all the efforts they're using to suppress anything about Stain. Such is the era of suppression we live in..." Kai sighed, finally seeing the irony of the situation. "Have internal affairs look into this. I have a gut feeling some of the new recruits I've been forced to take in may be involved."

"_Understood, sir." _

Kai hung up the phone and sat back in his chair, rubbing his temples. The mission was a complete failure as a singular, direct operation for the police to catch a well-known villain, without a single use of pro-heroes. He had been caught and confined, only to slip away from their grasp once more. Further, he had gotten reports of a new group of villains making headway in the underworld.

_The League of Villains._

**_Knock, knock. _**

Kai snapped out of his thoughts.

"Yes?" He called out. From behind the door of his private office, he heard the tired voice of his butler, Toriyama.

"Sir, Representative Anno is here to see you."

_'Shit.' _

His patron was here, most likely to get an update for the operation.

"Send in him in about five minutes... Also, what is Ryu doing right now?"

"He's in his room, looking over some of the UA paperwork, sir."

Kai paused for a moment. He knew that the meeting with Anno would take a while, and he still needed to brief Ryu on his additional assignment now that he saw Izuku's appearance at the entrance exam. His spy was only now truly proving to be a blessing in disguise.

He determined Ryu would have to serve this new role. Kai inwardly laughed, seeing the irony of the role he was about to entrust on the lad. A role he himself had served with Hisashi, now reversed if Ryu's listed family name proved true.

_**The knight in the shadow to shield the people.**_

Kai stood up and saw the bottle of sake from all those years ago. The bottle only had enough for three, perhaps four more cups left. The taste had indeed slowly grown sweeter every time he took a drink from it throughout the years.

"Let Ryu know that I will need to speak with him in a few hours, once my business with the Representative is finished."

"Yes sir."

* * *

Tomura sat across from his brother, the glare that the two siblings gave each other said everything.

They were only working together now to achieve their lesser goals, knowing that the finale of their fates will end with only one of them being crowned the successor to their master, the Emperor of Darkness.

**All For One.**

Crimson eyes continued to stare down at golden ones.

They had known each other for several years, as they were the two survivors from their time in the nurseries along with so many of their other "brothers and sisters." The "princes and princesses" many were now long since dead, or being used by the League one way or another. They sat in a small dimly lit room, with stale air filling their noses. The only light source came from a small laptop that displayed a blank video feed, with only audio playing from the other end.

**_"You've finished the exams, my apprentice?"_** A raspy cold voice asked from the laptop with a knowing hiss.

"Yes, master. I believe I did more than enough to pass and get into the hero course. Although, I won't know for sure until I get the official results. At worst, I can serve as one of the liaisons for the hero course."

Tomura's eyes narrowed, despite being hidden with the hand he wore as the mask. He knew that he could not hide his emotions easily.

He chuckled lightly.

"Careful now, Tomura." His brother snapped at him turning away from the screen to look back at him.

"I still believe this plan is for noobs. If you get caught, what's to say you won't rat us out?"

"You really think that little of me, Tomura?"

"You're still a child, and a petulant one at that."

"Says the whiny bitch who keeps playing silly video games."

"WATCH IT!"

**_"Enough, both of you," _**_t_heir master's intervened, his voice now reaching a dangerous tone;**_ "you will continue both of your plans to reach your goals. Whoever becomes my heir has always depended on results."_**

The two sighed and turned to look away from each other. Tomura then heard his brother speak,

"You still plan to invade UA now that we have confirmed that All Might is attending?"

"Yes."

"And once I'm in UA, what exactly do you need from me?"

"I'll save that detail once you meet your classmates."

_"Fine."_

The voice from monitor called out to Tomura, **_"Tomura, have you taken care of the Yakuza yet?"_**

"Yes, master. I have an eager new recruit already making sure they got the message." Tomura answered with a satisfied grin; "as a matter of fact, he should be dealing with them now as we speak."

"You sent in only one?" His brother questioned Tomura's plan, his knew that the compound may be smaller compared to other Yakuza groups, but Overhaul's gang still had numbers in their favor.

"He's trying to prove himself, but from what I gathered he gets the work done."

_**"Kurogiri. We're done here, take them both home. Good work you two. Just don't end up killing each other yet, there still a lot more work to do before I can bestow my gift to either of you."**_

"Yes, master." The two said in unison, as a black mist engulfed the both of them.

When the mist vanished, the two were back in the familiar sight of the bar, their showroom headquarters. Tomura moved to his favorite seat near the middle of the bar, while Kurogiri went behind it and began mixing Tomura a drink.

"_Tomura."_

He didn't move, but the sides of his face proved he was smiling. Now that their master wasn't here, they could be a little more open with each other as good siblings should be. Tomura remained silent with only the occasional clink and sounds of liquids being poured as Kurogiri continued his quiet work, waiting for his brother to continue speaking.

"Where is she?" He heard him finally ask.

"Whomever do you mean my dear litter brother?" Tomura mockingly answered back.

"I'm not here to play your games."He snapped back.

Tomura sighed. "You grew too attached to that psychopath."

"Answer my question."

"She's safe for now... still broken after the last round of culling..." Tomura laughed, then raised his arm as he heard his brother move suddenly towards him; "careful now! If you hurt me, I will make sure she dies!"

His brother may have tried to intimidate him, yet Tomura knew how easy it was to bring him to heel. A simple threat to those he cared about and he would always cease his barking. Kurogiri remained silent despite the tension between the two being thick enough to slice with a knife, he simply finished his mixture and slid it to Tomura's side.

"She's learning her new place right now... You can have your plaything back, _if_ you cooperate. I'll never understand why master ever thought she would be a worthy candidate, but it doesn't matter now," Tomura finally continued after taking a sip of his drink and pulling a portable game console from his pocket. "Go home, before you blow your cover."

With a heavy frustrated sigh, he didn't see his sibling's face or reaction, instead he heard him give out an order.

"Kurogiri, _send me back._"

Kurogiri didn't answer and simply bowed slightly. Tomura sensed a portal open and close as he was finally left alone.

_'In the end, I'll be the only one left, and hopefully you'll die in the invasion as well... and if you don't... well heheheh... I'll enjoy seeing your stupid face as I turn her to dust before your very eyes.' _

Tomura laughed to himself again. If everything went ahead as planned, he would have another ace in his sleeve soon enough. Now to check on his newest project.

"Kurogiri."

"Yes, Tomura Shigaraki?"

_'God, that gets old saying the whole name.' _

"How's our new friend doing?"

"Sedated and being watched over."

"Since we still don't know if he'll join us or at least help with my plans, I can't call him a backup ace just yet. But at most, just having Stain here will make it easier for us to plan our next move without worrying which city he would be stalking next."

* * *

The little girl ran through the smoke as the hideout was completely engulfed in bright blue flames that stung her from the heat. Despite the fears in her heart, she knew this might be her only chance to be free.

The chance to escape the nightmare she had lived in for so long.

"BOSS!" A familiar voice called out, making her freeze in fear. "IS THAT YOU?!"

"No... but you'll see him again soon enough in Hell."

An icy voice from the smoke came out, followed by a large jet of bright blue flames that shot out and engulfed the masked villain. His screams ripped in the air as the flames licked way at his flesh to the bone; turning him into nothing but ash in mere seconds.

The little girl covered her ears before seeing the figure who caused the fire. His cold blue eyes and jet-black hair sent her panicking, tears filling her bright ruby-red blue-flamed man looked around, satisfied that his job was done. And now, to make sure the witness was taken cared of…

* * *

Izuku had been _very_ suspicious of his cousin's intentions. Right now, he sat at a table with Ochako after they had already placed their order and sat in near silence. In his head, Izuku was trying to figure out if he had been set up or not.

First was Katsuki's sudden departure. Katsuki canceled after he received a phone call, turning down dinner with Ryuko despite saying it was no big deal. Izuku knew that was bullshit; either it was actually a serious phone call and Katsuki didn't want to worry anyone, or was somehow convinced to do so, which must have taken a lot of work knowing how stubborn he could be.

Next was Ryuko herself, who left soon after the remaining three arrived at the restaurant almost an hour from leaving UA. She, too, received a phone call, claiming that it was an emergency call and needed to go. She ran off rather quickly, but not before giving Izuku a very generous amount of money that would be used to cover the bill and then some.**** She had always done small things like this to basically give Izuku extra pocket money whenever she could, especially after she made it to the top ten.

But it always unintentionally made Izuku feel guilty.

The worst, or maybe the best part?

He was now dining with Ochako alone, in a rather nice eatery which had a French name he couldn't even hope to pronounce. Disregarding the embarrassing incident from earlier, the two seemed to get back on the right foot and were able to talk normally with each other. Or as normal as they could get, considering they both still felt really out of place eating at such a high-end restaurant. In any case, the food served as the ideal ice breaker once their meals arrived, after two hours of shy glances and awkward small talk.

At last, here they were, eating and having a fun time. Almost like a date...

'_Damn it, Izuku.' _He blushed at the thought. '_Keep it together.'_

"Are you okay, Midoriya?" He heard Ochako ask before taking another bite of her food.

"Y-y-yeah. I was just hoping that everything is fine with Kyu."

"She's a top ten pro! I'm sure she'll be fine! That reminds me, I gotta thank her for this later," She looked down sadly. Being treated out at such a fancy place felt odd in the eyes of a country girl in just her middle school uniform, "I just wish I didn't feel so out of place here."

"You're not the only one who feels that way, trust me," Izuku reassured her. He could relate in a way, being a poor city kid wearing his second-hand school uniform.

"The food is really good though!" She bit into a piece of grilled chicken breast, sighing in delight as she savored the taste. "Mmmm…!"

"Very true," Izuku continued to cut into his steak, which was one of his western favorites. It's a shame they didn't serve Katsudon.

The two continued until they finished up their food. Izuku took care of the bill, paying with the cash he got from Ryuko. Just as he had suspected, Izuku had way more money leftover than he needed. Fending off the rising feelings of guilt and remorse, he decided when he had the chance, he would donate the extra money as he normally did.

"Wow, time sure flies, right?" She noted when the two left the restaurant and saw the twilight of dusk in the skies above.

"Yeah. We better get home before it gets late," Izuku said, not realizing how his phrasing could be misinterpreted. This was met with Ochako's bashfulness as they walked to the train station.

She had gotten to know Izuku so well in such a short amount of time, and yet it all felt natural to her. No real misgivings or worries came to mind. Whenever she was with him, the feeling she felt in the back of her head always seemed familiar and relatable to her, in spite of his pseudo-celebrity status from the sludge villain viral video she found online and so often teased him about during their dinner together.

She never really showed a genuine interest in any of the boys back in her hometown. Sure, Ochako had a few small crushes and infatuations here and there, but nothing ever came about from those. The only exception would be the love she held for her childhood knight, but perhaps that was more due to his attachment to her dream of becoming a pro-hero rather than a true romance. Even still, a part of her held out the small, childlike hope of meeting him and falling for him all over again like the fairy tale she would often daydream about.

Izuku, on the other hand, seemed different to the knight she met long ago. Izuku was a bit plain-looking on the outside but was clearly someone who earnestly strove to do what's right, no matter the hardships he faced. He still wanted to be a hero and refused let himself be dragged down by what life threw at him. Proving as such when he risked his own life to save hers and many others during the practical exam.

As the two walked in silence, Izuku asked a question that reminded her again of her knight.

"So, what made you want to become a pro-hero anyway?"

Ochako took a moment to debate what to say. Many people had told her before that her reasons were a bit silly. Sure, wanting to become a pro because of a childhood crush seemed frivolous at first, but they never understood what it meant to her in context. He inspired her to go forward and help people, to put them at ease and to become the brave hero like he was to her in her time of need. She knew Izuku better than that, and that he wouldn't be so dismissive. She was sure that he wouldn't speak ill about the boy or her reasons for originally wanting to be a hero.

But before Ochako could say anything, they both heard a strange noise nearby an alleyway they were approaching, only a few blocks away from the train station. Ochako specifically heard something that put her on edge; the whimpers and sobs of a hurt child. Both of their hero instincts kicking in as she walked slowly toward the source of the noise, Izuku following closely behind her and ready to cover her if needed.

As they stared down the dark alley, a small white blur suddenly appeared and startled both of them as it ran right into Ochako legs, latching onto her tightly. They realized it was a little girl, with snow white hair, red eyes, and a small, bronze-colored horn on the right side of her forehead. She wore nothing but a stained, white hospital gown and bandages on her limbs. She clung tightly onto Ochako's legs and refused to let go, making both teens scramble to check over the child with worry.

"Hey… are you okay?" Ochako whispered, the girl tensed up from her light touch.

"Uraraka," Izuku suddenly spoke in a low voice, his tone firm as he looked down the alleyway. "Get ready to move."

Ochako looked up and now saw the tall outline of a figure in the darkness, slowly making their way toward them. It must have been what put Izuku on edge, as he put himself in front of the two girls. Ochako held her grip onto the girl gently, ready to move with the child if the oncoming threat poised a fight. The girl looked terrified of the figure walking toward them.

The stranger walked slowly into the light. He was tall with messy, jet-black hair, and cold steel-blue eyes. His skin was a mix of healthy and almost burned purple with stitches that seemed to hold him in place. His cold stare made both of them nervous.

"You better leave this place and take her with you. It's not safe here," He calmly said, the coldness in his voice chilling them to the bone.

Izuku looked at the girl before looking at the man right in the eyes.

"Are you the one who hurt her?" He asked, putting on his best hardened voice.

_"No."_

As he looked into the man's eyes, something within Izuku told him that the man wasn't lying. It was clear that the stranger did not try stopping them from leaving, or from taking the child with them to safety. Hell, he just ordered them to take her and leave.

"Let's go," Izuku finally said. Ochako nodded, picking up the child and backing away as she kept both eyes on the man. The two weren't sure on what exactly their next step was going to be, but one thing was clear to the both of them: whoever this girl is, she desperately needed help and they weren't about to abandon her.

The man then slowly lifted his left hand, his open palm and lit on fire with pure, blue flames. Izuku was quick to react, posed into a battle stance and prepared to fight him off until the stranger turned around and walked in the opposite direction, using the flames as a light to his path back into the shadowy void.

The teens both stared down the alleyway for a moment, as they watched the man leave and disappear into the dark abyss. Their hearts were racing once they managed to run away and proceeded to make their way towards the train station as quickly as possible, Izuku taking up the rear since Ochako's hands were full.

The wind picked up, chilling all three of them as they ran. That was when Izuku realized that the child was far worse off, given what she was wearing. Not wanting her to get cold and sick, he removed his uniform jacket and bundled it around her.

"Good idea, Midoriya," Ochako said as she helped the child stay warm by rubbing her limbs gently.

Izuku nodded, he couldn't help but worry for the child. But what could they do now?

He had no idea of what to do or where to go at that moment.

Should they go to the police station? He shook his head, even if it were a fairly realistic and safe assumption to seek help from them, he couldn't brush off his gut feeling of animosity when he remembered his family's treatment by the police after the Draco Knight incident. What if they called Ryuko for help? He tossed that idea aside as well; for all he knew, she could still be dealing with that emergency situation on her end and couldn't afford to be distracted right now.

Ochako, on the other hand, already seemed to have at least some notion of a plan.

"Midoriya," she said once they arrived at the nearly empty train station. "Let's stop by my place. It's closer from the train stop, and there is a small general store in walking distance where we could buy some clothes and supplies for her quickly."

Izuku thought about it for a moment but came up empty-handed and agreed with Ochako's plan. Using the extra money from Ryuko, he paid for the train fare for the ride there when an idea of his own finally struck him.

"Uraraka," Izuku turned to her to get her attention, "When we get inside the train, I need to make a quick phone call. I got an idea of what we can do after we get settled into your apartment."

Ochako saw a spark of confidence in his eyes and smiled, putting her trust in his plan.

"Okay. No problem."

Since it was fairly late at night, the trains were as empty as the station. Once Ochako got her and Eri settled in one of the many empty seats, she started speaking to the young girl and began asking her as many questions as she was willing to answer.

Izuku found a secluded spot as he brought up the number on his phone. At that moment, Izuku was immensely grateful that he had two very special phone numbers. One specifically for emergencies. It rang for a few moments before being picked up, in which Izuku wasted no time.

"Eight, it's me, and I need your help right now."

When the call was done, Izuku returned to sit next to Ochako and discovered the child was now napping in her arms. She took the chance to brief Izuku on what she had learned.

"Her name is Eri," She whispered, keeping her voice hushed. "I asked her several questions, about where she's from and maybe where her parents are, but all she kept saying was... the bird people."

"The bird people…?" Izuku repeated, as he began mulling over what the hell that could even mean. Unfortunately, that was most of what Ochako had managed to get out of her before falling asleep. Izuku decided it wasn't something to panic over right now, hoping to find the answer to what she meant later. After all, he had the great hero coming over to help them out.

* * *

They arrived shortly at Ochako's apartment, along with supplies for Eri by using the money that Ryuko graciously left Izuku. He silently thanked his cousin this time around for doing this; something he never thought he ever would do until today.

Izuku had already informed Ochako that a "well-known" pro-hero would arrive soon, and that they should be able to help them out with the given situation. Izuku didn't mention it was All Might, as he didn't quite know how to casually bring that up, not to mention it would sound pretty far-fetched without proof. Ochako simply felt relieved, thinking that Izuku had contacted either Ryukyu or one of her sidekicks to investigate the issue. Little did she know that instead, she was about to meet the Number One Pro-Hero!

Ochako gently handed Izuku the sleeping bundle that was Eri.

"I'm gonna prep her something to eat, you mind holding her for a sec?" She whispered.

Izuku shook his head and intuitively took Eri into his own arms, surprised how light she weighed even for a child her age. Ochako quickly returned, with two water bottles that she placed on the table for Izuku and Eri.

"I don't have much, since I haven't gone grocery shopping yet," Ochako said, "Do you think some apples would do for now?"

"I think that's a good idea, at least till help gets here," Izuku answered back. Ochako nodded before returning to the kitchen. It was only a minute or two when Ochako came back with freshly cut apple slices on a plate. She slowly pulled up a chair and motioned to Izuku to try and wake her up gently.

"Eri... hey, please wake up," Izuku said with a soft shake on her shoulder. Eri stirred only to wake with a sudden squeak, hastily looking around her surroundings.

"Hey hey, it's okay, you're safe here with us." Ochako gently calmed her down, making Eri's head turn to the teen.

"Are you hungry?" She added as she offered her a piece of sliced apple. Eri seemed to hesitate at first.

"It's an apple, Eri." Izuku took a piece for himself to show her the food on the plate as harmless. Izuku enjoyed the small piece with a small "Mhmmm... yum!" with a smile.

Eri looked at the pieces Ochako offered again and began to eat. The moment she tasted the apple, she immediately looked at the slices of fruit in a new light.

She loved the taste of it and found the fruit to be perfectly sweet and refreshing. It had been the best thing she had ever eaten at that point in her life, she almost seemed to squeal in delight and had the smallest ghost of a smile on her face. Her small bit of happiness brought a wave of relief to the two teens.

After she finished, Izuku helped her drink some water from the bottle as Ochako took the dish to the sink. Izuku was surprise at the speed in which she drank; draining the bottle in seconds.

"Easy Eri, I don't want you to choke," Izuku said with some concern. As she finished, however, she began to squirm in his jacket.

"Eri, are you okay?" Izuku was concerned that she might have indeed started choking. Eri suddenly stopped sighing with some relief. At first, Izuku thought the warm sensation was Eri showing happiness, until he realized that the jacket started to feel wet.

It seemed, unfortunately, that Eri didn't know how to ask to use the restroom. Thankfully it wasn't too bad, as Izuku moved Eri away from his body so only his jacket and parts of the hardwood floor got the worst of it.

"I'm sorry." Tears began to form in her eyes as she hung in midair.

"No no, don't worry Eri! It happens!" Izuku nervously tried to keep Eri calm but was unsure how to do so.

"Did something happen?" Ochako asked, reappearing from the kitchen.

"She accidentally wet herself," Izuku said, feeling responsible for the mess on her apartment floor. "Sorry Uraraka, I didn't know that she needed to use the restroom."

Ochako didn't seem angry. Instead she simply gave the child a gentle, sympathetic smile.

"Here, give her to me." As she reached for the girl when he did, Ochako pulled the child into a hug, not caring that she got a bit of the mess on herself as well.

"There there, it's okay," She softly rubbed Eri's back to ease her worries. Ochako told Izuku calmly, "Since we got her some new clothes, I can help get her get cleaned up in the bath."

"O-o-oh! Okay! While you're doing that, I can clean up here," He suggested, hoping to make up for his mistake.

"Oh no! Midoriya, you don't have to!" Ochako became a bit flustered, considering it was her apartment and keeping it clean was her responsibility, not his.

"I want to do my part here," Izuku said with an air of confidence. "Really, I got it. Don't worry."

Ochako sighed. She knew with that smile, there was no way he would let this go and pointed out where she kept some of her cleaning supplies. As Izuku began work on cleaning and sanitizing the room, she grabbed the shopping bag with Eri's new clothes before heading to her room and getting a clean set of clothes for herself. Afterwards, she proceeded to head to the restroom to draw the bath for the two of them to clean themselves up.

As Izuku cleaned the mess off the floor, a stream of questions began to flood his head.

'_What could have happened to the poor girl and for how long?' _

'_Where was All Might, surely he would have been here by now?'_

'_Who was that man in the alley way?'_

'_And… what was going to happen to Eri?'_

Ochako got the bath set up for the both of them and removed the gown Eri wore, only to reveal just how horrible the state Eri was in. She was very skinny and underweight, as if she hadn't been fed properly, and her beautiful ruby-red eyes were in a constant state of fear and sadness. She also appeared to have not been bathed in a while, her hair clumped and sticky in odd places and her smell before her accident wasn't much better either.

She felt even worse when she removed the bandages that Eri had around her limbs. Ochako's heart completely sank once she saw the scarring hidden underneath.

'_What kind of monsters could have done this to such a young child?' _

Seeing this, however, only strengthened Ochako's resolve to make sure Eri would get the help she needed as soon as possible. And right now, a good bath was definitely in order.

When Izuku finished cleaning, he realized just how late it was getting and knew his mom would be worried. He looked at the clock, now thinking it would be a good idea to call her. He had shot her a quick text while on the train earlier that day to let her know about the original dinner plans with Ryuko, but it had been a couple hours since then.

Since he was still waiting for Ochako and Eri to finish up with their bath, he was about ready to call her until he heard a knock at the door. He checked the door through the peephole and saw All Might in his gray suit, along with another tall man with black hair and in a brown suit. Izuku opened the door, stepping out to greet them.

"Eight!" Izuku was relieved to finally see help was here.

"It's good to see you again, my boy," All Might whispered, "I want you to meet a good friend of mine, Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi. My close friend on the force."

Izuku turned to look at the man with a slight air of caution, given his recent knowledge about the police and his family.

"You needn't worry, young Midoriya. I can assure you that he is trustworthy. He is the one who let me know the truth about your father after I got out of surgery. And he knows the truth about our quirks."

"It's good to finally meet you, Midoriya." Naomasa bowed politely, "may we please step inside?"

"Umm… yeah," Izuku said apprehensively since it wasn't his apartment. "Just give me a moment and let me check with Uraraka first."

All Might held back a chuckle. Just a few hours ago, he had heard details from Recovery Girl about this Uraraka girl locking arms with Izuku after their exam. All Might had seen that the young lady was very gifted and had the same sense of drive from his own firsthand observations of the exam. She had earned third place above the rest, trailing close behind Izuku and Katsuki Bakugou who were in first and second place respectively.

Though, what surprised him was that he was sure Izuku wasn't in a relationship as far as he knew him these last ten months. Yet somehow, here he was in said young lady's apartment past their curfew. He was sure that Izuku knew better than to be doing anything reckless or, heaven forbid, _adult._ He reminded himself to discuss with his successor about the nature of their relationship at another more appropriate time.

Izuku stepped back inside to see Ochako and Eri had finished their bath and were now dressed in light, casual clothes. Ochako wore a pair of soft looking pants and a pastel pink t-shirt. Eri wore some comfy looking white pajamas, holding onto her legs again.

"You okay, Midoriya?" Ochako asked.

"Yeah… By the way, they're here. The person I called earlier, I mean…" Izuku nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "But before I introduce him, I need to tell you not to freak out when you see him, okay?"

Ochako's nervousness only rose with that warning.

'_It wasn't Ryukyu he called? Surely it wouldn't be anyone shady, right?'_

"Is it okay if I let them in?" Izuku gestured to the door, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"O... kay?" Ochako said slowly, trying to sound more sure of herself.

Izuku opened the front door, leading Ochako to be absolutely floored as the towering frame that was the World's Symbol of Peace and Justice stepped straight into her apartment.

"A-A-A-A-A-All Might?!" Ochako stammered out with a small jump, accidentally making Eri cry out in fear. She was then quick to calm Eri down and regained her grip on the child.

"Oh, oh Eri! I'm so sorry for startling you!"

Okay. Izuku was definitely proving to be _something else._

Having an extremely powerful quirk, on top of being cousins with a pro-hero in the Top Ten?

AND NOW PERSONALLY KNOWING ALL MIGHT?!

_WHAT'S NEXT?! IZUKU BEING DRACO KNIGHT'S SON?! OR BEING THE BOY FROM TEN YEARS AGO?!_

"Hello there, Miss Uraraka," All Might quietly greeted her as he entered the small apartment. "I believe I need no introductions. This, however," He motioned to his dark-haired companion who bowed politely again. "Is Naomasa Tsukauchi, a friend of mine from the police department."

Ochako nodded, bringing herself back to the gravity of the situation. Now wasn't the time to fawn over Japan's Number One Hero when they were here to help Eri.

All Might turned to both Izuku and Ochako, "He has some important questions for the both of you and the young lady you found if possible, please."

Over the next few minutes, the two teens said everything important that they knew to All Might and the Detective, recalling the events that happened on their way to the train station after dinner. When they finished, Naomasa pulled out an evidence bag and gathered the remaining articles that was used as clothing by Eri, including her old bandages that were covered in dried blood.

"We may be able to find some blood relatives once I get this in. I'll make sure to put a notice out on the guy with a patchwork face as well," He concluded. "All Might, I'll call you when I find out more details regarding Eri. Until then, I can try and find a temporary foster home for her if she'll come with me."

Naomasa reached out for Eri, but she scrambled away from him and clung tightly to both teens.

All Might frowned. It was a difficult situation, but what could they do? None of them were fond with the idea of forcing the troubled child to go somewhere she didn't feel safe.

Eri didn't seem comfortable going anywhere without these two, but Izuku and Ochako both had their own lives to return to after the exam. Izuku remembered his earlier conversations with Ochako, recalling that she had to return back home to Mie Prefecture the day after tomorrow to finish up the rest of her last year of middle school.

And while he was in his last two weeks of school himself, he entertained the idea of taking Eri to his home. But then, who would watch her while he was at school and his mom was at work? Plus, it would mean an extra mouth to feed and clothe, which the Midoriyas didn't have much to begin with. Knowing how hard his mother worked to provide for just the two of them, Izuku couldn't bring himself to spontaneously add the burden of taking care of Eri as well.

Ochako thought along the same lines as him, too. In her mind, she was the one who found Eri and felt the most responsible for her well being. She considered taking Eri with her to Mie, but knew that idea would be shot down now that an official investigation by the city's police has opened up for Eri. More importantly, she had yet to even ask for her parents' permission to bring the orphaned child to their home.

Finally, a solution came to All Might's mind. A solution that he believed could not only work in their favor, but finally accomplish a personal goal that he's been trying to establish for years.

"Young Midoriya," He spoke up, breaking the silence in the room.

"Yes sir?" Izuku yelped, sitting up straight.

"Call your mother and please inform her that we will be stopping by for a visit."

"Are you sure, All Might?" Izuku asked, uncertainty found in his voice.

"I am. And Miss Uraraka," He turned to Ochako and praised the young teen, "I humbly thank you for your assistance. You both have already done so much for a mere child, a stranger no less. You truly are building on the essence of being a true hero."

Ochako would normally be over the moon by the thought of being complimented by the Symbol of Peace. But at the moment, her concern for Eri overruled the current situation.

"Wait, so you're taking Eri to Midoriya's home?" She asked.

"Yes. You should rest easy he –"

"Midoriya, can I please come with?" She said, unintentionally interrupting All Might. He chuckled to himself, as he could sense the growing concern on her face.

Izuku couldn't believe what he was hearing, "I mean… Uraraka, All Might is right. It's getting late and I know we can handle it."

"No, that's not..." Ochako looked down with sadness and guilt. "I'm the one who found her, but… I'm basically dropping her at your doorstep for you to handle when I know that you're struggling already on your own. I can't just stay here, it just wouldn't be fair for you and your family!"

Izuku was really surprised just how determined she was about this. He wasn't sure what All Might had planned, but he trusted him and he trusted Ochako.

"Fine, but only if I'm walking you back here when we're done." He firmly decided. Izuku knew she could handle herself, but the idea of her walking back home all alone late at night didn't sit right with him, especially with that mysterious man at large.

"Okay," Ochako nodded in agreement. She wasn't quite sure how to take that, but accepted his offer, presuming he was being a gentleman about it and was simply looking after her.

"Now that that has been decided," All Might said to the three, before motioning to Naomasa to walk with him, "I will ask the both of you to excuse Tsukauchi and myself, as we need to speak for a moment in private. Please, gather what you need for young Eri and meet us outside soon."

And with that, Ochako began gathering the rest of Eri's clothes and supplies while Izuku went ahead and phoned his mother. He finally called her to calm her down for not answering her frantic calls or texts from a few minutes ago, and to inform her to expect guests arriving soon at their apartment. It had been a rather busy day after all, and he knew would have a lot to explain to his mom once everything was said and done.

One quick drive to Izuku's apartment complex later, Naomasa opted to wait outside to finish making a few calls as All Might, Izuku, and Ochako carrying Eri went ahead to Izuku's apartment. Inko had been told mostly everything over the phone, but seeing them all together still made her body tense up with frightful worry.

Ochako took one look at Izuku's mother, now meeting her for the first time. She was about the same height as Izuku and was rather skinny, her green hair had strands of gray mixed in with many stress lines that crossed her face. But looking past her worried expression was someone who she could tell was a very caring and motherly figure.

All Might had been dreading meeting Inko for years. He still couldn't tell her the truth about Hisashi, especially now with present company. But he hoped that this plan could at least bring some relief to the family, relief he owed so much without offending her pride as a provider. Izuku walked in and thankfully saw that his mother had successfully removed the pictures that featured his father. It was a common practice when they had guests over who was a member of the Bakugou family or Ryuko. Sure, his father often wore a mask or helm with his costume in the eyes of the public, but there were a few pictures with him without the mask and they didn't want to take any chances.

"H-H-hello th-there, I'm Inko Midoriya," She bowed, trying to quell her stuttering voice. "Please, have a seat. I'll get some tea ready for all of you. Izuku, do you mind helping me?"

"R-Right!" Izuku said, first motioning All Might, Ochako and Eri to the couch in the living room before stepping into the kitchen.

A few moments later, he returned with hot tea for everyone with Inko silently stepping in and taking a seat on the couch opposite of her guests and son. Everyone seemed a bit more relaxed with their drinks, Ochako helping Eri with her own cup. All Might went straight to the point, relaying a simplified summary of events that happened this evening, when he finally finished with,

"Mrs. Midoriya, I apologize for how last minute it may be. But I humbly request for you can assist us by taking in young Eri into your home."

"All Might," Inko looked at him with a look of hesitation and remorse, "Normally, I wouldn't mind at all, and would be more than happy to do that. But… I'm not sure you're aware of our… situation."

"Actually, I am," He quietly intervened, "The whole story, in fact."

At that moment, Inko blinked and looked All Might in the eyes, immediately understanding that he indeed knew who they really were.

"Well… then you must know about our current finances, and as much as I would like to, it simply isn't feasible –"

"And that's where I come in," All Might calmly pulled a folded piece of paper from his suit jacket and handed it to Inko.

She took the paper and asked, "What's this?"

"A job offer. A rather simple one, actually."

Inko opened the paper, and after skimming over the document, her eyes suddenly looked as if they were about to pop out.

"WAIT! ALL MIGHT...!" Inko stumbled over her words, clutching her heart. "W-wa-wa-hah!"

"And that's just the starting pay, which should be more than enough to cover for utilities and for young Eri's provisions. All you have to do is assist in taking care of young Eri while we continue investigating her case," All Might explained, maintaining his somber tone. "Mrs. Midoriya, from what I know about young Izuku here is that, despite all the hardships you two have faced over the years, you've raised a wonderful, hardworking son with everything you have. I couldn't think of anyone else I could fully entrust as Eri's caregiver during this time."

"And as for the documentation in transferring young Eri under your care," He added, pointing to the note she held in her hand. "I already have a good friend in the police hard at work in finalizing the transition, as his contact number is on here as well. All we need is for you to agree to it."

"B-B-but this…" Inko stuttered in reply. "This is a bit much for just babysitting, isn't it?"

"Mrs. Midoriya, it's more than just that. When it comes to the welfare of this young child, it is a small price to pay."

A look of sorrow flashed on his face but fortunately, Inko didn't seem to notice.

_'And you, of all people, deserve so much more...' _

She looked around at the people in front of her, her eyes focused on the young teens who were busy keeping Eri entertained, almost appearing as parents themselves. She held her gaze a little longer on the brown-haired girl, who seemed oddly familiar to her… but she couldn't dwell in her thoughts for long. All Might needed an answer from her.

"Okay, I accept," Inko took a deep breath before finally answering with a smile. "I will do my best to help in the task you've entrusted in me. That's the Midoriya way, of course."

Sighs of relief spread to everyone in the room, especially from Izuku and Ochako.

"Wonderful!" All Might, his boisterous voice returning, rose up from his seat and bowed to Inko. "You're officially hired! I'll make sure to bring in the legal forms to make it truly official tomorrow."

"I'll hand my resignation from my job first thing in the morning then." Inko nodded with some relief, standing up and returning the bow. If this all worked out, then it could finally mark the end of her hardest days and long, never ending shifts.

Ochako was thankful as well. She was prepared to beg and plead to All Might to let her take Eri to Mie if Inko had declined. But even now that Inko agreed to take up the role, she still felt the need to apologize.

"Mrs. Midoriya?" She stood up and caught the attention of both adults.

"I'm Ochako Uraraka, Midoriya's friend. And, I wanted to say… I'm so sorry for all the trouble I've caused," She apologized with a deep bow.

"Uraraka..." Izuku tried to interject on her behalf, but Ochako wasn't going to have it.

"No, I'm the one who found her. I know I'm just a kid, but I can't help but feel I'm the one responsible. And yet, I'm leaving her to you… I just can't stand by, not without saying thank you and apologizing for leaving you with her."

Inko smiled back, admiring the young girl's thoughtful and humble nature. She couldn't help but wonder if this was the girl Mitsuki was talking about this morning. If she was, Inko felt somewhat relieved, content to know that Izuku was involved with someone who was just as kindhearted and selfless as he. However, the more she looked at the brunette in front of her, something in the back of Inko's mind gave her a feeling of _déjà vu_, especially now hearing her name. She just couldn't put her finger on why, though.

"Dear, you've done and offered to do so much more than anyone would for someone your age," Inko reassured her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. "But you don't have to worry or feel guilty now that I'm here to help. As you've heard, I've agreed to it all on my own, and I'll have the means to take care for little Eri here, so please don't place any blame on yourself. It's no burden at all, and I feel honored to help."

"Besides," She chuckled to herself, "According to what All Might said, Izuku also had a hand in this venture so by extension, I carry a responsibility for Eri as well."

Ochako sighed but relented, conceding to Inko's reasoning. Her endearing assurance did help settle down her worries, now that she knew Eri will be in good hands while she returns back home. With that, Inko led All Might to the door now that their meeting was wrapping up.

"Thank you, sir," She quietly spoke, ever gracious to her new employer. "For everything."

"No, madam, I should be thanking you," He gently insisted as he made his way out, making sure to duck his head under the doorway. "I'll be sure to touch base with you over the next few days."

As Inko closed the door, she finally took the chance to really meet with the child she just agreed to house and care for. She turned around and saw that Izuku was carrying Eri in his arms now.

"Eri, this is my mom," Izuku introduced softly, tenderly putting her down when he saw his mother walking up to them.

"Mom?" She took a good, long look at Inko properly with her bright eyes.

"Yep," Izuku nodded and reassured her, squeezing her hand. "And she'll be helping us take care of you here, alright?"

"Not leaving?"

"Nope, staying here with me."

Eri sighed in relief until she looked for her other savior.

"Chako?" She called out, looking at the brunette.

Ochako knelt down to her level, "Yes, Eri?"

"Are you...staying, too?"

"I would like to Eri, but…" She thought carefully on how to explain, "I don't live here, and I need to leave Musutafu in two days."

At those words, tears seemed to form in Eri's eyes, terrified to see either of them leave just when they both made her feel safe and sound.

Ochako quickly added, "B-B-But, I'll be back! So I can go to UA if I passed, and then maybe I can stop by and visit to see you, okay? Or you can visit me in my apartment! Whenever you want, okay?"

As Inko observed the two, she checked the time and saw it was nearly nine o'clock at night. Seeing the situation and not wanting to cause more anxiety than Eri had already dealt with today, she thought up a quick solution.

"Uraraka, it _is _getting rather late. Would you like to stay the night and keep an eye on Eri until the morning?" Inko suggested, taking the two teens by surprise.

"Wait! Are you sure?" Ochako raised her hands hesitantly, "I wouldn't want to impose."

"It really is okay. After everything today, I think a good night's rest to calm the mind should help everyone and put Eri at ease," Inko answered, "Plus, we couldn't let you just walk home alone this late at night, hero candidate or not."

"Um, Mom… where are they going to sleep?" Izuku asked, trying to do his part of being a host. "I mean, I don't mind them taking my bed and I can sleep here on the couch or the floor."

"Izuku!" Ochako exclaimed, her worry on whether she really was the burden here came back in full force. "I'm the guest here, I can't push you out like that!"

"And what kind of host would I be if I didn't offer the best to my guest, Ochako?" Izuku shot back.

Inko couldn't help but laugh seeing the two argue back and forth, bemused over the fact that at this point, they pretty much have dropped all pretense and simply began addressing each other by their first names without even realizing it. She had to clap her hands to get their attention, already having a plan of her own in regard to sleeping arrangements.

On that night, the Midoriya household had added the white-haired child to the family. In the months to come, she would prove to be one of the greatest blessings they could have ever hoped for.

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**Author's commentary**

Without notes or commentary this chapter by itself is over 10K long. I can safely say this will not be the last one, I got a number of lengthy chapters set-up.

**Western Style houses***: So anyone who has seen average Japanese living spaces know that they tend to be small compared to homes in say the US. My uncle who has lived in the Japan where he lived and got married to his wife can attest to this first hand.

Western styles homes are similar in style and size to US housing, but also way more expensive. Given the Iida household reputation and wealth it wouldn't be difficult to assuming that they would have a large sized western style house with a large yard.

**Flawless face****: This is an AU where Shouto clearly did not grow up in an abusive household, so while I won't say that Endeavor is perfect in this AU, he is still strict. But this never escalated to the abuse found in canon. In canon this sub-plot serves to show the ways of both how quirks can be used in relationships, as well as showing that everything isn't black and white when it comes to heroes and villains.

However this wasn't needed in this storyline, and I find it pointless to redo every sub-plot from canon, especially since I'm already working with a lot in the background. This also lets me play with Shouto's development in a different way, especially being a young uncle and best friends with Tenya.

Much how I made Ochako's economic background to be stable. These were all choices I made very early in the development of the story to both avoid re-trending ground and to allow current developments to happen smoother, earlier and easier to write for.

**Animal Buddies with pro-heroes Anima and Comicman*****: So a big shake up, Yes Manga from Class 1-B and Kouda from Class 1-A are older and are established Pro-Heroes in this universe. Given how little they have been employed in canon, I could remove them easily to add another character from the series to 1-A and 1-B respectively. Yet I didn't just want to replace them without knowing what happened to them.

Soooo my idea was make them the hosts to a children's television program, and it fit really really well. Kouda being a animal lover and Manga's quirk served the idea perfectly and they will be making physical appearances later in the story both as entertainers and as active duty pros.

**Tipping******: This kind only applies to those of us who live in the US as I recently discovered. Tipping isn't really a thing outside of the US (Ok some places outside the US) But in the case of Japan yeah tipping isn't a thing to do there, and in the case of one my friends in the Marine Corps who was stationed in Japan a few years back let me know, that the waiter who served him, actually ran out to get him to return the money back. So fun fact more or less.

That is it for now. I restart the review section next chapter.

_**Chapter XII: Bonds **_will be out on 5/30/2019


	12. Bonds

Sorry it took a good minute to upload this, between my job and being "volunteered" to work over time. I barely just got home to do my notes and upload this, I would have done it in the morning, but I've been pretty exhausted physically and mentally from my job.

Anyways! I have a few things to add before we start.

**One:** I will be deleting _**The Stars in her eyes**_. Honestly it was mostly a small experiment for me to dabble in Sci-fi and every time I look into both reworking the first chapter and how the rest of the story would flow, I just can't seem to hook myself to what initially started with that story. That being said I am already braining storming a replacement. Not a reboot though, it would be a similar concept but with different elements planned. Main ship for that one will still be Kirimina.

**Two:** I am starting on an initial development into my forte genre of Fantasy. The main ship for that one is Todomomo, and after reading a number of other fantasy AU MHA fics. I think I got something very exciting to go on, that I haven't seen anyone else do. (This is also my hard practice for the Fantasy series I am currently writing) If there is one talent I can admit to myself as a writer. I can world build like a goddamn champ. (Title still pending on this fic)

**Three:** I am still working on the _**Roasts of Class A**_ (For readers who don't remember.) It's a fic of the members of canon Class 1-A roasting each other. With one character per chapter. The first roastee being the master of disaster himself: Katsuki Bakugou. This also my crackfic, so expect it to be savage no holds barred and for everyone to be OOC so everyone could lay in the characters. (Comedy Central Roast-style)

**Four:** I am including a new sub series to The Untold Universe! _**My Hero Academia Untold:Interviews**_: It's a semi-canon parody of the Untold Universe: That stars two of my minor OC's interviewing all the characters both canon and OC to gain some insight on their characters and just a way to lighten the mood when things get heavy later on in the main story. It's basically like Clover clips for the Black Clover anime, that unlike the Omakes, would interrupt the flow of the story. This gives a bit room to allow my chance to OC craft without interfering with the main story and allowing readers to read at your leisure.

And that about covers it. Yes I work on a lot of projects. I'm always doing something, I'm never not doing something. OH my upload schedule could be altered slightly depending on what happens next week as I have received a summons to do Jury Duty for my local court circuit. So I have no idea how that could impact me yet, but I will keep you guys updated so I don't leave you hanging if an upload is delayed.

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Reviews:

To everyone who gave me a complement: Thank you all.

**ElephantBoy00: **As this chapter will show. You are right on the money and it's only going to get fluffier with the trio from here.

**Oooberserver: **Same with the trio love it. And as pretty die-hard Izuocha fan, I would be damned not having read Rio's stuff. I have _**Green Tea Tales**_ in my favorites for a reason! But also do love _**Domestic Heroes **_too! Glad you're happy about the lengths of future chapters. Of course there will still be shorter chapters like this one for the simple more quiet moments.

I am a firm believer in the "Butterfly effect" Change one thing, you change everything. So using that logic I keep playing _"what if"_ in my head. I'm the type of Asshole who loves Harry Potter, but tear it apart with my _"what if"_ questions that poke holes in everything. MHA has this way of being both closed and yet so open by changing just a few small things. But at the same time I am still grounded to possibilities rather than completely going off the rails like other fics do.

**D3lph0xL0v3r:** I am a tiny bit confused by what you mean by "Black Order" I'm pretty sure there was nothing like that in the last chapter. As for how Kai and Neocons tie into everything else all in due time. As for The Q.L.A unfortunately I cannot include them this early in the story, due to Saga I being completely plotted out, **_but _**I do have plans with them in mind for later Sagas, but that will be a while before we get there.

**beingwithu:** Scared of what?

**AnimeFan299110:** How could I not? She is very important to this storyline.

**JaxTheKnight2319: **No worries in the creative department. Honestly I just wish I had more time in general, but I am enjoying my work here and this is one of the few things have legit brought some spark back into my life, given just how down I was before starting this whole thing.

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Recommendation: Now this one is actually very popular but it is only found on AO3, but FF users I strongly recommend going to AO3 to give this one a read.

_**Yet Another 1-A chatroom: By Dr_J33**_

FF (has a real vendetta against chatfics that I think is BS)

I have a rather small fondness for Chatfics (albeit most are super OOC) THIS ONE I would argue is the best one I have read period. It stays in character, has an excellent pace in comedy, drama and ships. (A lot of my personal favorites) And it's a multi-part series that is complete with an epilogue. Please give the guy some love and check it out.

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Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

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**_My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight_**

**_Saga I: Dusk_**

**_Arc I: Origins_**

**_Chapter XII: Bonds_**

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**_"We define family in many different ways: not just by blood but by people with whom we find a common ground and a common bond."_**

**_-Adrienne C. Moore_**

* * *

Ochako giggled from Izuku's hilarious retelling of today's events, as Eri sat on his lap helping along with his story. Ever since Ochako left to go back to Mie, they had started doing nightly video chats. It was mostly at Eri's request, one that Ochako was more than happy to oblige her.

"_Did Eri really do that to Bakugou?"_ She asked, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. Izuku couldn't help but keep on laughing as well.

"She did, took the apple right from under him when he wasn't looking."

Earlier that day, Katsuki had arrived to the Midoriya household to finally meet Eri properly since she began living with them.

"_So much for a bribe." _Ochako giggled again from the other side of the screen.

"Maybe I should've been more forward in letting Kacchan know how much Eri really loves apples. But I have to admit, him pulling out the candied apple did surprise me!" Izuku looked down on the child who sat on his lap. "Now I know that Eri really likes those treats, too. Isn't that right, Eri?" Eri timidly nodded. She still found it difficult to speak up at times and was still skittish around strangers.

"_Anything else new?"_ Ochako asked with genuine interest.

Izuku thought for a moment, "Well, we started Eri's new diet to try and get her back to a healthy weight."

"_That's good."_

Ochako sighed with relief, glad that they had been following up in getting Eri proper treatment after seeing how badly her condition was at the start. Though it had only been a week since she left, she could see Eri's face was fuller and was looking more alive. The only thing that still worried Ochako was him previously mentioning that Eri had yet to smile, and that more than often was plagued with horrible night terrors. Ones that caused her to wake up screaming in the middle of the night when she tried to sleep alone in her own bed.

"Hey Ochako?" She heard Izuku say, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"_Hmm?"_

"Have you gotten your letter from UA yet?" He asked nervously.

"_Nothing yet... But I haven't checked today, so for all I know, it could be here right now..."_ Ochako suddenly realized that she, in fact, hadn't checked the mail today. _"Umm...Izuku I'll be right back!"_ She said in a panic, running out of view from her laptop camera.

"O-oh! Okay!" Izuku blinked, surprised by Ochako's sudden departure.

"Is 'Chako okay?" Eri asked, clearly worried.

"She's fine! She's just checking the mail... which reminds me... I should check, too..."

Right on cue, there was a knock on the door.

"Izuku?" He heard his mother call out to him.

He turned to look at the door, Eri looking puzzled as well.

"Is something wrong, mom?" Izuku asked before hearing Ochako cheer from outside the camera view.

"Your test results… They're here!" Inko nervously told him. The poor boy's eyes looked ready to pop out of his head upon the realization that his letter from UA, which his future as a pro-hero hinged upon, had finally arrived.

Getting over his shocked reaction, he turned to Eri as calmly as he could, "We'll come back to chatting with Ochako after this. Is that okay, Eri?"

The young girl simply nodded, as Izuku quickly ended the video chat on his laptop and sent Ochako a quick phone message letting her know that they would call right back after seeing his test results from UA. He then picked up Eri and went to the door, who was then met by both his mother and cousin in the hallway.

On any other day, the Midoriya household would normally be filled with shouting and stammering with emotion at the news. But with Eri as the newest member of their home, the family had learned to readjust and mellow down their reactions as to not cause further distress on the child. Nevertheless, Izuku couldn't help shaking with excitement and nervousness, eagerly anticipating the envelope in his mother's hands.

Ryuko motioned everyone to the living room so Izuku can show the results to all. She already knew the results of her cousin's exam, but had sworn not to say a word to him and Katsuki, the latter, she had to admit, had really tried hard to get something out of the Dragoon Hero. Unfortunately for him, she often shot him down with faux tears.

Izuku sat Eri down next to him as his mother and cousin took the seat on the couch in front of them.

"No matter what Izuku, just know that I am very proud of you," Inko reassured her son. "This doesn't diminish all the hard work you've put in to get to this point."

"Yep! Now, hurry up and open it Izu!" Ryuko laughed. "The suspense is killing me here!"

With a firm nod, Izuku opened up the sealed envelope and a small, round metal device was found inside along with the remainder of his paperwork. He looked at the object in his hand.

"What is this?" He curiously inspected the flat device; no bigger than a poker chip.

"Put it down facing up this way." Ryuko, with a smile, motioned what to do with her hands. Izuku did as his cousin suggested, and the moment he set it down on the coffee table in front of him, the device instantly came to life.

**"BOO-YAH! I AM HERE, AS A PROJECTION NOW!"** The booming voice of All Might called out, startling everyone in the room. Ryuko nearly transformed out of surprise and Inko's heart raced upon seeing her new employer come out of nowhere. Eri, while not afraid of All Might now that she knew he was a friendly face, had not been ready for his sudden appearance or his loud voice.

She quickly lunged and tackled onto Izuku, clinging to him like a monkey. Izuku couldn't even speak, both out of shock and because Eri accidentally knocked the wind out of him. The projection of All Might continued on while triumphant music played in the background.

**"I know it's been a while, but I have been completely swamped this whole week! You know how the old saying goes! **_****'With great power, comes a great amount of paperwork!'"****___Projection Might waited for a moment for a reaction, then coughed and continued on when met with everyone's silence.

**"My apologies, young man! The truth is, I didn't come to this city just to fight villains!"** Projection Might proclaimed, **"You're looking at the newest UA faculty member!"**

**"No way! You're seriously going to be working at UA?" **Izuku exclaimed in excitement, while Ryuko and Inko remained shocked at the news. As they all processed his announcement, All Might was then being clearly told off-camera to hurry it up by someone in the background, a hilarious moment in which Ryuko would never let him live down.

**"So, moving on! Ahem!" **Projection Might cleared his throat as if to get everyone's attention. **"Young Midoriya! On the behalf of UA, I am pleased to announce your admission to our prestigious academy under UA's hero course! In addition to making it into the hero course, not only did you pass the written exam with flying colors, you've also achieved top of your class in the practical exam with a whopping 98 points! Congratulations, young Midoriya!"**

Behind All Might, he pointed to a display that listed the total exam scores of the top rankings, with everyone paying special attention to the top three.

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**Name: Villains | Rescue | Total**

Izuku Midoriya 58 | 40 | 98

Katsuki Bakugou 81 | 11 | 92

Ochako Uraraka 38 | 50 | 88

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**"During the practical exam, your actions in moving quickly to protect others in need were very notable," **Projection Might continued, **"However! We do recommend planning ahead instead of running into battle headfirst, young man!"**

A recorded clip then played of Izuku's incredible assault against the zero-pointer, and poor Inko nearly fainted upon seeing Izuku plummet to the Earth until the very last second, where he was saved by Ochako grabbing onto him and diverting their fall.

_'I need to thank her for that later,'_ Inko thought to herself. She fought the urge to reprimand her son for his reckless actions but allowed it to slide once she saw why he had done it.

**"I must add that you please keep the **_**public displays of affection**_** more discreet next time,"** Projection Might sheepishly coughed and looked away, as the clip played before them showed the aftermath of the two holding onto each other on the floor of the battle center, visibly unconscious. **"Others may…how should I put it – take your situation the wrong way, young Midoriya."**

The silence that followed this moment was deafening, to the point one could hear a pin drop.

**"That being said!"** Thankfully, Projection Might spoke past the awkwardness, **"In receiving the highest score, you will be awarded the honor of being this year's freshman representative at the UA Sport's Festival."**

With one last wind of gusto, All Might gave a thumbs up to the camera. **"We look forward to seeing your bright future here at UA! And so I say, welcome Izuku Midoriya! You have made it to your Hero Academia!"**

And with that the projection turned off.

Eri sat looking around, puzzled by everyone's current expressions. Izuku and Inko both had very red, embarrassed faces, while Ryuko appeared to be trying, and failing, to keep a straight face; smirking with glee. At her very young age, Eri couldn't quite comprehend the rather compromising position the two had been showed in the projection.

"Well!" Ryuko snapped mother and son out of their daze. "I'm all for having one more extra member in the family, next to Eri!"

"Izuku..." Inko said softly, her saddened face clearly still very red. "If you're dating, you don't have to hide it from me..."

"Mom! It's not like that! Ochako –" Izuku started but was suddenly interrupted by Ryuko's uproarious laughter.

"Oh my god! Izu, come on! Do you hear yourself? _O-cha-ko!_" She continued laughing, clutching her stomach as she got up from the couch, "I'm gonna pee my pants at this rate! I need the use the bathroom!"

"I meant Ura-ra-ra-ka!" Izuku sputtered out. His cousin simply waved him off as she headed to the restroom.

"Izuku, did you ever get _the talk_?" Inko suddenly asked. Once Izuku heard those words, he wanted to dig himself the biggest hole he could make and hide in it forever.

"In…_ in_ _school!_" Izuku managed to say, hoping that his mother would drop the subject matter _now_.

Meanwhile in the Mie prefecture, Ochako Uraraka was currently in a similar situation as both her parents jabbed and joked at their only daughter's expense over this new boy she had yet to tell them about. Blushing bright red, she prayed that their reaction wouldn't be as bad when she finally gets the chance to tell them about Eri.

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Elsewhere, Katsuki Bakugou sat in his darkly lit bedroom. While proud of his achievements at the entrance exams, his victory felt hallow when he heard All Might's last words said on his UA projection letter.

**"**_**Young Bakugou, your top-ranking scores in both the written and practical entrance exams combined with your prior behavioral history and recent approval in part of the personal counseling you've completed, I am pleased to welcome you to your Hero Academia starting as a probationary student under UA's hero course. You'll need to report to the Head of the Department of Heroics during your first week of schooling for a more detailed rundown of the paperwork you will need to review and complete. Further details will be assigned to you shortly." **_

"Damn it." He growled to himself, his fists clenched on his lap.

He had kept the news of his anger management out of the ears of the Midoriya family, partly out of shame on his pride and partly to keep Izuku from inevitably placing the blame on himself. After all, virtually all of the fights Katsuki had gotten into at school was due to him running in and defending his friend. He looked at his dim PC screen and saw the chat app he often kept open. Looking at the online icons on the side, Izuku was currently having a video chat with someone else.

Ochako, no doubt.

It had been a double-edged sword for Katsuki; the girl had clearly brought that extra spark back into Izuku, and for that he was grateful as much as he may stubbornly deny it. But between her and Eri, it was more difficult to actually hang out like they used to. Being shoved off to the side as the third-wheel now with Eri and Ochako in the picture made him, in turn, feel isolated and a bit more spiteful than usual.

"Katsuki."

His eyes narrowed when he heard his mother's voice from behind the door.

"What?" There was a bit of bite found in his voice.

"Can I come in?"

Katsuki paused. It wasn't normal for her to approach him and talk to him alone. Then again, events from last year have been far from normal.

He sighed, "Yeah..."

His bedroom door swung open with a light creak, his mother slowly walking in.

"You okay?" She asked as she stood right behind his chair.

"Shouldn't you be checking up on the old man?" He asked in return, knowing his father was still recovering from a back injury caused on the same afternoon as the UA exam. He was still thankful to know that he wasn't caught in one of the buildings that had burnt down.

"Yuu's got it covered. Right now, I'm more worried about you," Mitsuki answered while remaining composed.

"I'm fine," Katsuki snapped, his temper slowly reaching a breaking point.

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not!" Katsuki finally stood from his chair and yelled. "I said I'm fine!"

"Katsuki Bakugou!" His mother roared back. "Then look at me in the eyes and tell me that!"

Katsuki sharply turned around and looked at his mother's face, then was surprised by what he saw. The relationship between mother and son was unique between the two, as he had inherited her rather aggressive temperament. Perhaps it was seen like magnetic poles of the same charge, often repelling each other and seeing each other as the hardheaded "know-it-all." And yet at this moment, Katsuki was compelled by something rarely given by his mother.

**Understanding.**

Mitsuki drew her son into a hug. "You've been kicking a lot of ass lately. And I wanted to let you know that I'm proud of you." She said calmly, feeling her son's tenseness slowly fade. "I know you don't feel like celebrating it as a win right now, but that all will change once you get started at UA proper, and when you get in your costume and start showing off your stuff."

"Now... take it easy on the saltiness," She brightened up the mood with gentle ribbing, "Just because Izu has a girlfriend and a sweetie for a daughter."

"Tch!" Katsuki clicked his tongue with a mixture of frustration and, oddly enough, some amusement.

"I'm shocked that you haven't thrown your weight in. And here I thought you would dash at the chance to be the fun-loving uncle! Don't you know how much Ryuko loves kids?"

"Shut up!" Katsuki's face quickly turned cherry red and he broke off their hug, which only made Mitsuki laugh harder.

"Such a _tsundere _for a son!" Mitsuki dramatically showed a mocking sense of scandal.

"And stop calling the Unicorn that!" He added with a growl, "It was funny the first time, but now it's getting old!" Remembering how much his mother had teased Izuku for bring home a _**"love child"**_ so soon, to Katsuki's revulsion.

"I don't know… the way Eri clings onto Izu! Reminds me more of a child and parent instead of a brother and sister, don't you agree?" Mitsuki bantered on, "And if that's the case, you being Izu's _'big brother'_ would then make you her uncle, wouldn't it?"

"Gah!" Katsuki raised his hands, giving up fighting against his mother's antics.

* * *

Eri sat with a picture book in her hands from her favorite TV show, _**Animal Buddies! With Anima and Comicman! **_She was fascinated by all the different kinds of animals from around the world, even some of the tiny colorful birds caught her eye despite her strong aversion to birds and bird-like people. Izuku sat a few feet away and was catching up with Ochako on video chat again, both going over their entrance exam results with a touch of red still on their faces.

"_So, now that it's official, I'll be returning to Musutafu by the end of the week!"_ Ochako clapped her hands together enthusiastically.

"You excited?" Izuku grinned.

"_I am! But...I'd be lying if I didn't feel a little sad, too..." _Ochako answered while looking a bit downcast. _"After everything... my parents started crying. They were so happy for me, but it also meant that I would be leaving home for a long time. And now that I really think about it...I'm really going to miss them. Maybe I'm just feeling a bit scared… since I'm going to UA all on my own." _

Izuku frowned and felt a wave a sympathy for Ochako. This was going to be a huge shakeup in her life and she had planned to do it all by herself so far away from home. He didn't want the video call to end on such a sad note.

"But you won't do it alone!" Izuku offered, causing Ochako to look up at the screen. "I – um...what I mean is, you're not going to be in this alone. I'm gonna be there with you, and my mom says you can come by and visit us whenever you want! I know that we are far from a substitute, but we're here! From training to studying to just having fun."

Ochako was a bit shocked by the sudden invitation to basically be a part of his family. She gazed at the green-haired boy through the camera and the white-haired little girl who sat on his bed behind him with the picture book. A comforting feeling settled warmly in her heart.

"_Thank you Izuku." _Ochako thanked him graciously.

"Oh! Actually, speaking of which..." Izuku began before typing something to the text chat.

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_**AllKnight! (Izuku):**__ I was wondering if you wanted to do something to surprise Eri when you come back?_

Ochako silently read his text message before looking at the little girl once again and smiling.

_**GravityQueen (Ochako):**__ I think I got something in mind!_

* * *

As the two teenagers chatted away through text, Eri continued to flip through the picture book and stumbled upon a page on animal families, which had expertly shot pictures of a small family of rabbits. The rabbits all had different fur colors and even had ones with quirks. One small picture caught her eye, a tiny albino rabbit with a brown-furred mother grooming her and a moss-colored camouflaged father bringing in vegetation into their nestled home.

Her eyes scanned over the large, simple text that even someone like her could read and understand without too much effort.

"_**A lovely bunny family!"**_The simplified hiragana said in the form of a speech bubble from Comicman, with Anima pointing out each member of the family. _"Papa," "Mama,"_ and_ "Daughter," _followed by the appropriate kanji for each word.

Eri looked at the picture with many thoughts running through her head, finally focusing on one word.

**Family.**

It was a strange word to her, given the nightmares of how she grew up with them.

With _**HIM.**_

Those who terrified and hurt her were once called her "family."

And yet here in this home, she felt a strange, warm feeling that formed deep within her, whenever she was sitting with Izuku or talking with Ochako. This feeling felt foreign and confusing to young Eri, as it made her heart feel light and free. While she didn't know what to do with this feeling, she knew one thing for certain: Eri desperately yearned to be just like the small, white bunny in the picture.

If what she was seeing and feeling was a real family, she sensed a deep longing for it.

The only thing that stood in the way, the one fear that shook Eri to the core, was **him. **As long as **he **was alive and still out there, no one, not even she, was safe. Eri has long accepted the fact that she had been cursed from birth, and it was only a matter of time before he would find her and put an end to any hopes she had of having a real family.

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**Short Story II: "A rare smile, or when Enji Todoroki tried to learn how to smile."**

Enji Todoroki was better known as the Flame Hero: Endeavor to the public eye, ranked number two on the current pro-hero charts.

And today, he was spending a rare day off with his family.

He sat at the end, where his son-in-law would sit opposite to him at the head of the table. It was fair, considering that they were guests gathering at the Iida family compound after all. To his right was his wife Rei, chatting the day away with Natsuo, his second eldest son who was visiting home from college. While Tensei and Fuyumi were busy in the kitchen, Shouto and Tenya were currently busy with Hikari and Mei, the latter had stopped by to visit, _or invaded, _depending on who you asked_._

"Oh my god!" Natsuo had suddenly burst with laughter as he held up his mother's phone. "Pops, is this for real?" He asked his father, tears rolling down his face. Enji groaned and crossed his arms, as he saw that Rei had shown him the infamous "smile" collection.

"Sorry Enji!" Rei laughed and continued to watch Natsuo flip through the photos of his father 'smiling,'

"But I had to show him here. At least be relieved that they aren't going anywhere on social media." It was a cute habit she picked up when the two went through marriage counseling together a few years back. Enji rarely ever smiled, and whenever he did, it was only for brief snap-shot moments. So, she tried to get him to practice smiling with her reasoning that, aside from it positively helping their marriage, it could serve as a boost to his image as a Pro-Hero. Unfortunately, his attempts at smiles often resulted in looking like awkward teeth baring than an actual smile.

"I'm dying!" Natsuo proclaimed with dramatic flailing as he continued to laugh.

Although that all changed once he stopped at one particular picture with his father seated with a rare, genuine smile, one that put a pause on his laughter. Natsuo looked at the photo as his father wasn't seated alone. No, he was seated with the rest of his family. He vividly remembered the day that photo was taken, as it was the last day before Tensei and Fuyumi's wedding…her last day as a Todoroki. It was all of them, his father, mother, his eldest brother Touya, himself, and Shouto, along with Fuyumi in the middle seat beside their parents.

Natsuo sighed, filled with bittersweet nostalgia on the sight of his oldest brother in the photo. For a moment, he hesitantly looked up to father and was about to ask if he had heard any details about Touya's whereabouts until he saw the look on his father's face.

There it was, the same rare yet warm smile in full view. But unlike the picture in the phone, it wasn't aimed specifically towards him.

Natsuo looked to where his father was facing and suddenly, it all made sense. To the older generation of the family, the future came to view in the yard just a small distance ahead. There, the three teens and the young grandchild were all peacefully enjoying their time together without a care in the world. Natsuo recalled that his father never had known such a childhood, not with the people his paternal grandparents had been known to be.

Natsuo, without a moment's hesitation, quickly opened the camera on his mother's phone. With a silent snap, a new photo had been taken.

Another rare smile indeed.

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**Author's commentary**

This a short sweet, fluffy chapter to ease us down for the **_Arc I finale_** next chapter.

OH YES _**Arc II**_ is going to be my Jam, with an improved Battle Trial, I know a bunch of my old readers loved from the original. But before that this is going to be a...special chapter for _**XIV**_. _**XIV**_ is the final all new original chapter not found in the Original version, all other chapters onward until we get to _**XIX**_ is simply revamped and improved versions of the intro to UA and battle trial chapters. Like I said before, it is pretty much a straight from here to the USJ.

Hope you look forward to this and more. _**Draco Knight Chapter II**_ should release around the same time as _**XIV**_.

**_Chapter XIII: Pieces on the Game board_** will be released on 6/2/2019

As always dear readers with lots of love

**-X**


	13. Pieces on the game board

I have to admit, every time I upload, I always see a handful of people unfavorite and unfollow; followed shortly by new favorites and follows and hell I saw my follows finally reach 300 before dropping down and then suddenly gain a few more.

It's always kind of unsettling, since I don't think these guys have ever commented or gave criticism, but hey I know not everyone is going to like the direction my story goes and that's fine. I'm honestly just surprised the reboot as even regained the numbers I have now compared to from the original that still don't feel like I deserve.

One thing I noticed and it does seem like some of you guys are catching on, that there are some themes in this story of Family, friendship, bonds. These aren't the only ones but they are a large part of the stories I tend to enjoy.

Although that could have just be me feeling lonely.

Anyways I'm happy that a lot seemed to like the fluff chapter and like I mentioned before, expect a bit of everything in this story except really extreme stuff like rape or smut.

I think have already settled on the matter of lemons in this story. (Sure it could boost my numbers) but I only write scenes that serve the story and while I maybe could do something to make a lemon scene important (I honestly don't have an issue with teens banging each other, shit it happens in real life all the damn time) That doesn't mean that there won't be scenes that imply a lemon but most likely will not be written out.

(But I am basically confirming that some characters will being getting laid at some point and yes it does serve a reason in the story and how you want to interpret that is up to you.)

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**Reviews**

To everyone who simply left a complement thank you.

**bp136714:** In the English Dub: All Might does go: "_**Boo-yah! I am here as a Projection now!**_" I honestly found that way too funny not to use.

**patrickthenobleman**: Oh hey man, haven't seen you comment on this story for a while now. Love your _**Zero of The Black Crusade**_ Code Geass fic. I've been meaning to drop a number of reviews for it. I can't say much but I think this chapter and **Chapter XV** will help answer some of those questions.

**HankFlamion18**: There is more fluff in the future, trust me I love fluff to death. But it is always a balancing act between high drama and fluff fun.

**Ooobserver:** Like I said, everyone's development is going to be handled differently, and it basically a mixture of Hisashi, Izuku and the political climate that caused Katsuki's need to adapt in order to achieve his goals. (I gonna be honest and say despite his recent development which is good, I am still not a big fan of the character himself. And you can kind of call a number of things I do this is development as a form of Karma. But I'm also not going to go out of my way to bash or nerf him either of those choices would be pointless) And I'm glad that you are able to get something out of my story to help your own.

**JaxTheKnight2319: **When it comes to Endeavor, I see him the way some people look at Katsuki or Mineta. People with certain backgrounds can find them very easy to hate depending on said background. 

In my case its Katsuki due to a long history I have with bullying which did include an attempt to off myself in middle school (so yeah episode 1 of MHA really made it easy for me to hate the guy)and Endeavor isn't far from Katsuki from my own hatred, despite being lucky to have neither have been a victim or been witness to domestic abuse. That being said none of these characters in my eyes are beyond redemption and in my opinion should have a chance to become better and that is one of my aims with these three and others. I toned down Katsuki, I altered Endeavor's background and I plan to tone down Mineta to try and improve their characters while still keeping them in character. (Oh shit I just realized that got pretty dark. Sorry I tend to do that)

**D3lph0xL0v3r:** Ah ok that makes more sense, I should clarify that Kai's vendetta is pretty much squarely on Hisashi and not his family, all the other bad things that happened to Izuku's family who simply got the backlash from the Draco Knight decision. Let's just say I still have a lot left in that character before his role in the story line is finished.

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Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight_**

**_Saga I: Dusk_**

**_Arc I: Origins (Finale) _**

**_Chapter XIII: Pieces on the game board_**

* * *

**_All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved._**

**_-Sun Tzu_**

* * *

All Might sat in the office of UA's principal, Nezu. The hybrid-animal sat calmly, drinking hot tea as they waited for their guests to arrive. Nezu had proven to be invaluable in the investigation regarding the matters with Draco Knight, and the mysterious events that occurred before the tragic mission and after the committee made their decision. The investigation had only made minimal progress, due to Kai's cunning and governmental red tape, with only some evidence being found leading to only circumstantial connections at best.

The scale of this investigation, however, only heightened with the recent discovery of young Eri and the call they received from Ingenium. All Might knew that Endeavor had opened up his own investigation into the Draco Knight matter when he discovered what happened. However, he also knew that Endeavor had done this more out of spite against Doumeki and All Might to solve this issue, perhaps in the hopes to finally usurp All Might from the Number One Hero spot. So, it was to his own surprise that after all these years, Endeavor had finally contacted them in hopes to work together in solving this case.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Nezu said calmly while taking another sip of his tea.

The door slid open and revealed a small number of pro-heroes and Naomasa, all who entered the room adorned in civilian attire. Endeavor, Gran Torino, Edge-Shot, and Ingenium all took their seats with Naomasa taking his spot by standing next to All Might.

Nezu placed his cup and saucer down on his desk, then opened his laptop. After a few moments of tinkering, he turned the monitor to face towards him and his guests. Sir Nighteye, or rather now known as Representative Mirai Sasaki, was on the screen. He appeared tired, but in good spirits. Nezu leaned forward on his desk with his paws together to begin their meeting.

"Gentlemen," he said at ease with his eyes closed, "First, I'd like to thank you for coming here to discuss everything we have uncovered so far to right an injustice done to one of our own."

All Might started off to recap his side to Endeavor.

"As you all should know by now, I first confronted Kai Doumeki about why they decided to pin the operation to Draco Knight. His answer seemed hollow to myself, and his reasoning was simply to protect the public about my condition, despite me being right as rain as you can see since," All Might stood firmly, flexing in his heroic form to those who did not know his secret.

"Others in the committee had said the same when I also confronted them, almost parroting word for word what Doumeki had said. Finally, I met with one of the other section chiefs; one by the name Kiryuuin. He was the one who decided to both talk against the gag order and actively voted against the decision. He even tried to open an internal affairs case to investigate Doumeki."

"And yet, the investigation was delayed as there was a massive restructuring of the government following the elections of that year. And when the dust cleared, Doumeki was sitting in a brand-new office. It would now take a lot more evidence to set up a new investigation from within the police department. But that's when we step in, along with the assistance of Section-Chief Kiryuuin, as we begin an independent investigation with the promise to do this by the books to turn in the evidence and take down Doumeki."

"Unfortunately, in between having to wait for Sir Nightey – I mean, Representative Sasaki's election into office, we have had little luck of getting anything of substance," Naomasa took over. "Thankfully, it looks like the Neocons finally went too far. As you can all see on the news, the protests have been making headlines daily."

_"Right now would be the best time to try finding as much evidence as possible,"_ said Nighteye. _"The Prime Minister has dissolved the lower house, thanks to the new wave of protests following several of the recent laws passed in the house that supported the Neocon ideology and their affiliated parties."_

"Voters remorse, by the sounds of it," Endeavor huffed.

_"Endeavor is on the right track. The tide can turn with the recent projections in the voter block. This should mean a larger number of moderate swing votes, which will ideally result in a new coalition government taking place to keep both the current Prime Minister in power while making modifications to the pre-existing laws. This, in turn, can reverse the more damaging effects from those laws."_

_"The Neocons would still have the majority in numbers, but not enough to keep control of the house, nor to form a coalition without making severe compromises with other opposing parties. However, they still have a popular swing with quirkless voters, and not all their plans have been completely negative. Including ending discrimination against the quirkless for work and study opportunities, and mandatory psych evaluations following the unfortunate case of that Kirigaya boy."_

Nighteye was referring to a quirkless boy who had committed suicide after years of bullying. Of course, he wasn't the only one, but the manner in which he took his life was what spurred the change when all of the bullies in question were later found to all have gone to different hero courses across the country. Death from leaping off the roof of his school, the sight alone still haunted many to this day.

"It is not uncommon for politicians to use such tragedies to further their own agenda," Edgeshot commented solemnly while shaking his head. "Despite it often being in poor taste."

_"Quite right, Edgeshot. If this goes well, Kai Doumeki will lose the protection he has, and a formal internal affairs investigation can finally begin as we can override the national commission at that point. Regardless of that, we need to keep this civil and by the books. As chief Kiryuuin directly said: __**'The last thing we need is for this to appear like a hero-led coup of the government.'**__ I have spoken to the Prime Minister and a few others in key positions. If what Ingenium suspects of this new so-called __**'League of Villains'**__ truly having members of the government in their pockets, then the sooner we should pin Doumeki down and the sooner we can weed out those with ties to this alleged league."_

"It wouldn't surprise me if this was indeed the case… My old bones can still remember the heights of the darkest days when** he** ruled from the shadows of the underworld," Gran Torino said, firmly gripping his cane. "The government was just a puppet to allow for so much chaos. However, we have history on our side to learn from it. And if we act swiftly enough, _**we can prevent history from repeating itself**__**.**_"

"Our contact in the underworld helped connect the dots from the incident that occurred a couple weeks ago," Ingenium started, "A massive fire broke out in one of the hideouts of the yakuza group known as _'The Eight Precepts of Death.'_ Ryukyu was contacted via the emergency line as she happened to be close by when the incident occurred. They found a number of bodies at the site, who were mostly members of the sub-group _'The Eight Expendables,'_ but no sign of the fate of their current acting boss: Kai Chisaki."

"Funny that naming coincidence, eh?" Gran Torino coughed. "But the kanji's different."

"And that is where we may have found a breakthrough," Naomasa added. "Around the same time that incident occurred, two teenagers –_ both UA hopefuls_ – found a small child not too far from the site. The child had severe scarring on her arms and legs. But fortunately, we were able to get her DNA from the bandages and find an interesting match."

"Oh? And what sort of match are we talking about here?" Endeavor asked.

"If the results are correct," Naomasa replied, "This young girl is the granddaughter to the former boss of _'The Eight Precepts of Death.'_"

"That can't be mere coincidence," said Edgeshot.

"No, sir. The coincidence was who found her: Izuku Midoriya."

There was a stunned silence that filled the room, everyone was left speechless.

"Fate does have a funny way of turning, All Might," Gran Torino muttered. "I do believe that man, that child's grandfather, was the one we used to bring **Him** out six years ago. A promise for immunity from prosecution if he could bring out his old business partner."

"Where is the child now?" Ingenium turned to the detective.

"She's in good hands and has seen steady improvement since."

"I see."

All Might then turned to Endeavor, "You said that you had a contact in the underworld, correct? When was the last time they contacted you?"

"Two days after the incident. We've been waiting to hear back, but so far it's been quiet."

"On my front, I have been in regular contact with a member of Doumeki's inner circle for the past few months," Ingenium changed the subject, making everyone frown but all remained silent to allow him to continue. "He's given very interesting information regarding the relations between Kai Doumeki and the Neocon movement. As of late, it appears that their relationship has become fairly strained due to recent failures and conflicts in ideology."

"Really now? Is it possible that our dear Chief-Superintendent is starting to have some regrets with selling his soul to the Devil?" Edgeshot mocked with a dash of snark in his voice, "Although, I can concur with Ingenium, as one of my own sidekicks happens to be dating a member of the Musutafu police staff and mentioned a recent commotion Doumeki had with some of the new recruits he, apparently, had been forced to accept into his ranks."

"That being said, considering the grand web of corruption we seem to have found ourselves tangled in, it would be best for everyone to wait right now and see how these elections will turn the tide," He determined with a raised finger, "If this 'League' is truly the puppet master behind the Neocons – willing or otherwise – it looks like they're biding their time. From the police to the government, it's just a matter of who will make the first move."

"I, too, believe that is enough for now," Nezu said. "For the time being, we still have to prepare for what may arise through the elections along with the new school year. Everyone should continue to do what they can, and we will gather again when we can get another breakthrough."

"Right." Everyone nodded in agreement, and Sir Nighteye signed off.

"Before we go Nezu, there is something I need to speak with you and All Might in regards to this new school year," Gran Torino spoke up. As the remaining guests shuffled towards the exit, All Might sat back down. Once everyone else left, Gran Torino began his warning.

"There is something that stuck with me," he began, "All Might told me that Doumeki was at the exam observing as this year's civilian representative. But what he said about making countermeasures for Midoriya... despite his tone, his comment may not be without merit after all."

"What do you mean, teacher?" All Might questioned.

"I also had some contacts from that committee that weren't afraid to speak out after a few drinks. I got the hint of what files Doumeki used in deciding Draco Knight's fate, and with a little more digging, I _did_ manage to get my hands on this," Gran Torino answered as he pulled a new document from his pocket and showed it to Nezu, "The original file for Draco Knight's without the redactions of some of the features about his quirk."

"Oh dear," Nezu smiled. "If the boy does have a similar defect, then yes, we should have some sort of basic countermeasure, just in case. I do believe there is a solution already present, thanks to this sheet here."

Given on Principal's Nezu's own desk was another document. Midnight had requested the chance to be a homeroom teacher and this just may be her proving ground. "And it wouldn't hurt to have someone who knows the boy personally on standby as well. I'll make a call to Ryukyu to see if she can help should the need arise."

All Might sat there with his eyes still on Draco Knight's file.

He knew that Draco Knight in his _**"Full Knight Mode"**_ was very powerful but didn't consider the fact it had this kind of potential backlash. He prayed for one of two things; one, that the defect skipped Izuku and that he wouldn't have the ability to engage in that mode, or two, should it happen, Midnight would make quick work on Izuku to combat it. Now that _**One for All is infused with Dragon Shift**_, the results of transforming into that mode could cause damages beyond that of those six years ago.

There, clear as day, were the words that chilled All Might to the bone.

* * *

**_Eye Color: Gold: "Full Knight Mode"/ Red: "Berserk Mode."_**

* * *

Behind the door to his office, Nezu could clearly hear the heavy breathing pattern and scent of Endeavor, who seemed to be listening in on the conversation.

_'Back up plans can come in more ways than one,' _Nezu thought as he heard Endeavor finally walk away.

* * *

He sat there, waiting in this cheap motel room with all the small comforts one could ever ask for: roaches, mold, and that horrible smell that no one could seem to identify.

But it was his for now.

He was carefully changing his outfit when he heard the door knock in a certain pattern, followed shortly by a piece of paper sliding underneath the door. He sat there for a few moments before getting up to retrieve it.

_'Dock E 9am,'_ it read.

Checking his phone, he saw the time was 8:24 AM, and the docks were at least a twenty-minute walk away.

_'Assholes.'_

Dressed in a gray hoodie and sweats, he booked it to the docks. His eyes scanned around once there, spying a large letter "E" to guide him. Dock E had a large warehouse nearby and seemed like the right place for this sort of meeting. Walking up to the warehouse and finding the door unlocked, he entered into the darkness. He lifted his sleeve up, then lit his hand aflame. The light from the fire ripped through the darkness when he spotted the man he had been waiting to hear from.

"Dabi. Right?" Said the man with a raspy voice. He wore a simple black long sleeve and pants with red shoes, his face hidden behind a mask in the shape of a hand.

"Yeah. I'm assuming you're the boss of this outfit?"

"Indeed I am. I'm here to welcome you into the crew proper, but first things first. Your reward for your job," He said, patting a suitcase nearby him.

"Good. I can finally find a nicer place to crash instead of that dirty hellhole I'm in right now."

"Heheh. Now that you're part of the league, I have a new job for you and it's much simpler this time around."

"Oh?"

"I have a pet here for you to watch over. Just make sure she doesn't die – _unless I order it_ – and remain on standby. We'll be calling to use her soon," the masked man said as he made a beckoning motion. In the darkness, something moved. A pair of golden eyes pierced the darkness.

What Dabi saw shocked him to his very core.

"What..._the fuck_."

* * *

To say that anger was what Kai Chisaki was feeling was quite the understatement. He sat in the middle one of his manu safe houses, his old hideout totaled and almost all his "expendables" were nothing more than ashes now. He was low on manpower, and while he had backups of his research, he was missing the key to his master plan, Eri.

_'That accursed brat escaped the first chance she got.'_

He couldn't allow this insult to remain. He had some suspicions on who attacked his crew, but now he had to bide his time until his sources in the underworld could report back to him.

No yakuza worth their salt would ever allow for such an insult to stand. He needed revenge against the ones who wronged him, and more importantly, he needed to find Eri. For once he did, he would teach her a lesson she would never forget. She needs to know that she will always belong to him and him alone. And let there be prayers said for any fool who dares stand in his way.

Kai Chisaki, **NO, **_**Overhaul**_ will be the cure for this infection that currently afflicts humanity. This plague that has come to be known as "quirks."

* * *

Nezu took a long look over with his present staff.

He needed a lot of coverage, especially with Class 1-A, the class that Izuku Midoriya was being assigned into this year. Much of the first-year staff for the hero course went with the core classes covered by Present Mic, Cementoss, Ectoplasm, and Midnight.

The staff councilor was currently Hound Dog, and the support course instructor and homeroom teacher went to Powerloader. And finally to round up the rest of the staff in the room were the two first-year homeroom teachers, Eraserhead and Vlad King, Thirteen as the rescue specialist, and lastly, All Might and Snipe.

"Good morning everyone! I do hope your brief holiday was enjoyable," Nezu began with his usual soft tone of voice. "First and foremost, as you all know, we have All Might, or Toshinori Yagi, joining our staff as both a teacher and as our "Administrations Director" in the case of his personal form."

Everyone, save for Shouta Aizawa, gave Toshinori a round of welcoming applause. For many of them, it came as a bit of a shock when they were told what was presumably the truth of All Might's current condition.

"Thank you everyone," Toshinori politely nodded to the warm reception.

"Now onto the next order of business! I have two major announcements, starting with the first: Shouta Aizawa, I have decided to promote you as our new Head of the Department of Heroics."

Shouta immediately stood up to shoot down the offer, but Nezu wasn't finished yet.

"In addition to your promotion and taking up higher responsibility, the new position will allow you a bit more freedom to nap during the day, as well in receiving a significant pay raise."

"… How much?" Shouta's eyes narrowed, not giving a damn about his tone.

"Twenty-percent," Nezu answered back without much of a care.

"Deal." Shouta quickly accepted with a wide grin.

"Now with that taken care of, let's continue!" Nezu went on his usual blissful mood, "Our next announcement: Nemuri Kayama, you will now be assigned in taking Aizawa's place as Class 1-A's homeroom teacher."

"YES!" Nemuri exclaimed, with a face that made many in the room question whether her excitement may or may not be for innocent reasons.

_'Time to be in the front lines of teenage romance!'_

A few awkward claps were made in congratulating Nemuri's newly given role, before dying down to allow Nezu to finish up by passing a handout to all staff and faculty.

"And finally, here is the list of Class 1-A and Class 1-B students, both Primary and Liaison for this school year." *

* * *

_**Class 1-A **_(Side note: I tried condensing the lists to be side by side, but the site format refused to cooperate so I have to do it like this sorry about that)

**1\. Yuga Aoyama- Q:Navel Laser **

**2\. Mina Ashido - Q: Acid **

**3\. Tsuyu Asui - Q: Frog**

**4\. Tenya Iida - Q: Leg Engines**

**5\. Ochako Uraraka - Q: Gravity Shift**

**6\. Mashirou Ojirou – Q: Tail **

**7\. Denki Kaminari – Q: Electrification **

**8\. Eijirou Kirishima -Q: Hardening **

**9\. Kashiko Sekigai** -Q: Sensor Chart**

**10\. Rikidou Satou -Q: Sugar Mix**

**11\. Ryu Kasei***- Q: Fire Eater**

**12\. Kyouka Jirou- Q: Earphone Jack**

**13\. Hanta Sero – Q: Super Tape **

**14\. Fumikage Tokoyami P.S –Q: Dark Shadow**

**15\. Shouto Todoroki R.S-Q: Cocytus******

**16\. Tooru Hagakure -Q: Light Bending **

**17\. Katsuki Bakugou P.S-Q: Explosion**

**18\. Izuku Midoriya 1FYR-Q: Force Boost******

**19\. Minoru Mineta -Q: Pop-Off**

**20\. Momo Yaoyorozu R.S -Q: Creation**

* * *

**Class 1-B**

**1\. Yosetsu Awase -Q:Welding**

**2\. Sen Kaibara-Q: Gyrate**

**3\. Togaru Kamagiri P.S -Q: Razors**

**4\. Shihai Kuroiro -Q: Darkness**

**5\. Itsuka Kendo -Q: Ultra Hands**

**6\. Yui Kodai -Q: Size**

**7\. Kinoko Komori -Q: Mushroom**

**8\. Ibara Shiozaki -Q: Vines**

**9\. Jurota Shishida P.S -Q: Beast**

**10\. Nirengeki Shouda -Q: Double Strike**

**11\. Poni Tsunotori -Q: Horn Cannon**

**12\. Kosei Tsuburaba -Q: Solid Air**

**13\. Tetsutestsu Tetsutetsu -Q: Steel**

**14\. Setsuna Tokage R.S -Q: Splitter**

**15\. Shino Mizuoji***-Q: Aqua Wave**

**16\. Inasa Yoarashi** R.S -Q: Whirlwind**

**17\. Kojiro Bondo -Q: Cemedine**

**18\. Neito Monoma -Q: Copycat**

**19\. Camie Utsushimi** -Q: Illusions**

**20\. Hiryu Rin -Q: Scales**

* * *

**Liaison Students**

**Mei Hatsume – Support 1-A -Q: Zoom**

**Jou Mori - Business "Culinary" 1-A -Q: Cooking+**

**Hitoshi Shinsou – General AB Reserve -Q: Mind Bind**

**Reiko Yanagi – General AB Reserve -Q: Poltergeist**

**Shigeru Iwata – Support 1-B -Q: Quirkless**

**Kiyoko Mikami – Business "Journalism" 1-B Q: Photographic Memory**

* * *

Nemuri frowned upon seeing that familiar name listed as student number eighteen for Class 1-A; Izuku Midoriya.

_'Not that I'm complaining, but was he the reason for me finally getting a homeroom class?'_ She thought to herself.

"And that concludes the major changes in roles for the time being. Next on the agenda will be the lesson plans for the hero course. Majima?"

Powerloader cleared his throat. "I already got the clearance from all the costume manufacturers. They should be ready in time for the start of the new school year."

"Good! I'm glad we didn't have a repeat of some of the disasters that happened last time." Nezu frowned when he remembered a few costume incidents that were not worth reliving.

"The first battle trial will be significant for us to understand both the general skill level of the student body and the effectiveness of their costumes. Aizawa, do you have a solid idea of what you would like to do?"

Shouta, after some thought, had another grin grow on his face. "Who are this year's top five in the third-years?"

Nezu nodded, taking a moment to pull up the files he had on hand.

* * *

**Mirio Togata - Q: Permeation HN: Lemillion**

**Nejire Hadou - Q: Wave Motion HN: Nejire-Chan**

**Tamaki Amajiki -Q: Manifest HN: Suneater**

**Mezou Shouji -Q: Dupli-Arms HN: Tentacole**

**Alexander Springfield -Q: Blink HN: Blink**

* * *

"Then yes. I do have a good idea on what we'll do," Shouta finally stated, with an intimidating tone of voice that made everyone in the room, including Toshinori, shudder.

* * *

"Okay Eri, that's enough. Good job!"

Izuku patted the young girl on the head cheerfully. Eri put down the restored ceramic cup that had been repeatedly broken as he finished jotting down a few last details in his notebook.

"Man, who knew Eri could have such an interesting quirk?" Ochako had observed Eri practicing as well. It all started by accident on the day before Ochako was slated to return to Musutafu. Eri had a small welcome back gift that she wanted to give to Ochako, a simple clay teacup that could be personalized using acrylic paints.

She had worked hard on making it and was distraught when the cup accidentally slipped from her hands in front of Izuku. But before he told her to do anything, Eri had started glowing when she held the pieces and suddenly the cup had been restored, to his utter shock. Being the quirk nerd that he is, Izuku began to try and figure out this recent revelation. Eri's quirk wasn't simply just the small horn that manifested on her head, but that it was another part of it entirely.

Eri yawned deeply, to the amused looks of the two teens.

"Are you sleepy, Eri?" Izuku asked. Eri nodded, her bright ruby-red eyes drooping slightly.

"It's almost her bedtime," Ochako added looking at the small _All Might_ themed alarm clock. "So, your turn to sleep with Eri tonight?"

Izuku nodded and gently hoisted Eri up so he could tuck both of themselves into his bed.

"Chako…" Eri called out.

"Yes Eri?"

"Can you please keep reading that story?" She politely asked.

"Only if Izuku's okay with it…" Ochako turned to him, who nodded. He, too, had to admit of being captivated by the way Ochako read aloud the story.

"Okay then!" Ochako said with delight, happy to see that her little plan had worked. She reached for the book by Izuku's nightstand, having left it there the previous night. She opened the large brown book, with the gilded title etched in the cover, _**Labyrinth of the World Trees: The Knights of Fafnir. **_

Ochako cleared her throat and began to read where she had left off the night before.

"_And so, the trio began their journey to the Duchy of High Lagaard. Flavio, the archer who had been training as a ranger, had volunteered to scout ahead and secure that there would be no immediate threats toward the Lady Arianna. Though currently being with Jin, Flavio had no major concerns now that she was in good hands."_

"_Still, it saddened Flavio's heart that the two did not recognize each other from their childhood days. On that fateful day when Jin had saved them from a pack of wild beasts, having changed with a beast-like armored form of his own to do so. Yet, no one had ever believed Flavio's claims from that day."_

"_As he sat on a stump of a once proud elm, he looked down the road with the two in tow off in the distance behind them. The Midgard Library was still in view, showing that their journey had only just begun. He looked on at the two, and he couldn't help but wonder if they would ever truly remember each other, seeing the princess and her knight walked together side by side." _

"_**'Maybe someday, they will.'**__"_

* * *

**Author's Commentary**

***Liaison Students:** Ok, so this is an idea I've had for my own original fantasy series, which is my own spin on a magical school (insert Harry Potter rip-off joke here) But when thinking about how UA is set-up. Made me realize that this is the perfect setting to test this idea out before applying it to my own series.

The concept is simple. Different specialties that work together and learn from each other. We technically already see this in the series but only from the support course. I however want this version of UA to feel more involved from all walks. Part of this idea also came that Non-heroes who get certified can use their quirks for their careers. Making reference to Ochako possibly going into construction if she did that instead of hero work in canon.

So I imagine that UA while better known for training heroes.

UA can also train non-hero course students to use quirks in an Non-heroic settings like in normal everyday careers, during the sports festival we saw the Business Course students actively thinking about of their Hero Course counterparts thinking about how they can be marketed outside of UA or how the public and pros would react to them.

I already used this in my story. Inko was a business course student in UA and served in 1-A as their liaison at the same time Hisashi was a Hero course student and aside from getting together is how Inko became a marketing manager for Hisashi post education.

This is also kind of based on my real life education when I went to trade school.

I was trained along side Medical Assistants, Medical Billing and Coders, X-ray Technicians, Pharmacy Technicians, Dental Assistants etc. (Want take a guess which one I was?) We did our own course work, but we also did joint work, example MA's would send Pharmacy Techs fakes Rx's to fill. X-ray would do simulation X-rays on other coursework students, and yours truly got blood drawn for practice and a free teeth cleaning. XD Lots of fun.

****Kashiko, Inasa, and Camie**: To the confusion of some who thought **Kashiko Sekigai** is an OC,_** she isn't**__**.**_ She is a character from the **My Hero Academia OVA Training of the Dead**, (which as yet to receive an English Dub unfortunately) anyways I added her to specifically replace Shouji as a "scouting specialist" given her canon quirk which I did modify for this story and she was chosen to also give 1-A little more female rep.

**Inasa** was an obvious addition given that the guy didn't get shafted by either Endeavor or Shouto in this version of the story so he didn't reject his chance for the recommended spot. **Camie** was aged down an year and...well her role is minor for the first Saga, but I'll still be using her here and there. Her time to shine will come later and I think people who know my ships know we she may ultimately end up. (Or not? I am full of surprises)

*****Ryu Kasei and Shino Mizuoji: **I can't go in depth about these two characters other than they are here to serve the story, if you end up loving and or hating one or both as the story progresses I think will vary reader to reader. Ryu as already been semi-introduced and Shino will make a complete appearance during the USJ. Oh and ease some early concerns neither OC will have ships in UA so breathe easy if you think you see signs of ships with these characters and honestly it's not even a spoiler.

****** Force Boost and Cocytus: **You may have noticed that I changed a number of quirk names to some of the characters of both classes. These quirks the most likely ones who had minor or major mods to their quirks to make them a bit more powerful than in canon. (Especially after learning more about Shinsou's quirk) In the case of Izuku: his quirk name was changed both to show that Dragon Shift has been altered thanks to One-For-All but I am also using the name of the OG Fafnir Knight's special ability as an homage.

In the case of **Cocytus** I'll just say this...**Half-Hot Half-Cold** is a really stupid name in my opinion, so I changed to be a reference to _**Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy**_, specifically_** Inferno**_, in which **Cocytus** is the ninth and deepest circle of Hell and is basically a frozen wonderland where the souls of traitors including the Devil himself is in the middle of a frozen lake trapped. Given that Endeavor's quirk is literally called _**Hellfire**_, I found the name change to be appropriate because I am a fucking nerd.

* * *

And that was the finale of Arc I speaking of which here is the complete list of Arcs for _**Saga I**_

**Arc I: Origins Chapter I-XIII**

**Arc II: The Incident XV-? **

**Arc III: The Sports Festival ?-?**

**Arc IV: Stained Hands ?-?**

**Arc V: The Calm before the Storm ?-?**

**Arc VI: Ragnarok ?-?**

**Arc VII: The Ephemeral Lands. XIV, ?,?,?,?,?-?**

You may have noticed something odd about the way the chapters have been listed.

_**Chapter XIV Denial Part 1**_ will be released on 6/5/2019

As always dear readers with lots of love.

_-X_


	14. Denial Part 1

I'm not going to say much for this chapter as this is the final original chapter for this reboot not found in the original text. (-Fixed)  
This chapter is much like the first as we begin to unravel several the mysteries behind the first Saga of this story.

There is no typo, this is the beginning of_** Arc VII**_, but **_Arc II_** will continue proper in the next upload with _**Chapter XV.**_ All I say is that between every Arc until we finish **_Arc VI_**, we will visit the _**Ephemeral Lands.**_

Finally I will leave you a guys a special message from my beta reader.

* * *

_Hello all! _

_I really hope you have been enjoying the story so far! It's been a pleasure helping X out as a beta reader/editor and we've been working really hard in putting out the updates. I'll be taking a brief break in June from editing for personal reasons, but I should be back by the end of the month. In the meantime, ((SHAMELESS SELF PLUG TIME)) if you're into Super Smash Brothers and Smash Brothers Ultimate, you can check out my fic,_

_**Strangers of Glory: Contingency.**_

_I'm working on updating that soon as well! _

_I'll be seeing you all soon! Thank you for reading!_

_Sincerely, _

_-A. Mitsuni_

* * *

I'll address reviews for _**Chapter XIII**_ in the next update.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight_**

**_Saga I: Dusk_**

**_Arc VII: The Ephemeral Lands._**

**_Chapter XIV: Denial Part 1_**

* * *

_**"I protect myself by refusing to know myself." **_  
_**― Floriano Martins**_

* * *

Waiting.

She had been waiting for quite some time now.

**"**_**Qlwbuqb auri. Alyzwf bl icbumkrzcx aiwbur qlwwiqbzlw."***_

She laid there, surrounded by darkness. Only the faintest whispers and the tiniest beeping sounds could be heard.

**"**_**Cbumzkzvzwf aiwbur kzwt. Jzfzbur oiwkiozwf nolqicczwf."**_

She needed to stay focused; she had an important task to complete, promises to keep. She had to concentrate on finding him and bringing him back home, to bring back hope for everyone who had been left behind to wait for both of them to return. A hope everyone back home so desperately needs. Yet at the same time, a part of her selfishly yearned to see him and him alone… to be able to hold each other again in each other's arms.

And finally, be able to tell him those words she failed to say out loud before everything went to hell, when the traitor had brought down destruction and chaos.

"_**I love you." **_

Those words were nestled deep within her heart. But right now, the only words she could think to herself were:

**"I've missed you so much."**

**"****_Qlwwiqbzlw auri. Fllj kyqr, Youhzbe; mozwf xza muqr zlai."_**

"_**I will," **_She whispered back into the void.

In an instant, all the noises ceased. She now felt the solid ground firmly on her back, with the smell of fresh air suddenly filling her nostrils and the sounds of nature filling her ears.

"Ah!"

She had heard someone squeak out in surprise.

"Everyone, please! Come quick!" The same voice called out.

She groaned and wished that whoever was talking could tone it down a notch. Ochako laid there on the ground, allowing her body to regain all her senses and movement. Soon enough, she could hear the small group close in, sensing their shadows and footsteps encircle her.

"Are you unwell?" The voice asked more gently now, as if to soothe her.

Ochako finally opened her eyes, briefly blinded by the bright white light of the sun's glow. As her sight began to focus and sharpen, she was met with a surprising sight of familiar faces. Kneeling before her were none other than the main characters straight from her favorite childhood storybook.

The girl who knelt directly in front was the one and only beautiful Princess Arianna de Caledonia. She had a kind, gentle face with curious rich purple eyes and matching hair. In place of her trademark armored outfit, she wore a flowing white dress. To her left was the tiny, and almost exclusively carnivorous, War Magus Chloe. She wore her usual witch's outfit, donning on an over-sized hat with a small star-and-moon charm that hung on one of the edges. And behind Arianna were two men, one of which a bulky and unshaved blond knight known as Bertrand, carrying on a weary, tired look behind his blue eyes and somber face. The latter was a younger man, the dark green-haired archer Flavio in his classic green and beige scouting gear.

"Do you understand me?" Arianna was clearly worried about the mysterious brunette foreigner she first discovered laying on the ground.

"Y-yes…" She blinked, then answered calmly as she could. Even in her bleary state, she tried her best not to nerd out. After a quick nod, she gave Arianna a small smile to put the princess at ease who, in turn, sighed in relief.

"Oh good! Now, are you injured or is something else wrong?" Arianna carefully asked, "I find it strange to find anyone in this land specifically, especially one simply on the ground unconscious…"

"No, no, I'm fine… I'm just looking for someone." She finally sat up from the ground, gathering her own bearings seeing that she wore a matching white flowing dress like Arianna. From what she could see around her came clear into view: the lowlands of a great valley, the lush and dewy greenery, and a bright purple and orange sky of dusk was clear in the sky. And there, the greatest feature to behold, was the grand tree that stood proudly in the center of its crown, far in the heavens above.

"You are searching for someone as well?" Arianna wondered.

"Yes, I am…" Ochako looked around herself in amazement and wondered which land she and the others were in right now, as it couldn't have been High Lagaard. No… it seemed like a different area altogether, one unlike the setting of the story she knew so well.

'_If Izuku was following the main storyline, he should still be heading toward Yggdrasil regardless.'_

"You know Princess, you tend to always get on our case about being polite, and yet you haven't introduced us yet," Bertrand remarked, gaining a small laugh from the war magus and archer, causing the young princess to fluster.

"Oh my! Yes, please do forgive me! Where are my manners?" She said, scrambling to compose herself. "My name is Arianna, heiress to the Duchy of Caledonia. With me are my companions: Bertrand, Flavio and Chloe." She started while motioning to the knight, archer and mage respectively. "As for yourself, what is your name?"

Ochako giggled a bit, as she had known who they all were ever since she was four years old. Still, she knew better than to interrupt. Arianna was kind and wonderful most of the time, but she could also show no mercy to her foes or patience for anyone who was extremely rude.

"My name is Ochako," She replied, unsure if this would be the best way to answer. "Ochako of Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun."

"I've never heard of the Land of the Rising Sun," Arianna replied looking a bit confused as she tried to remember the names of the various countries in the known world. While thinking it over, she helped Ochako stand up from the ground, but not before noticing something that caught her eye.

"Oh! Are you a daughter of the mark as well?**" Arianna asked in surprise as she looked at the back of Ochako's right hand. Ochako, however, smiled seeing that familiar tiny cross shaped black flower that marked her hand and the memories tied to it.

"I am, and I'm here to find my knight. A Knight of Fafnir," She said in a resolute manner, to the shock of everyone else in the group.

"It must be fate that brought us here together!" Arianna exclaimed cheerfully, "I've been on the search for my own Knight of Fafnir as well! His name is Jin, and what is your knight's name?"

"Izuku..." A pause, "His name is Izuku, and I came here to find him after he stopped a great evil," Ochako's voice was weighted with sadness and bitterness when she remembered the last few days. Arianna saw that familiar pain cross Ochako's face, a pain she knew all too well when they had lost Jin to the Black Guardian near the end of their own journey.

"Well then… let's work together to find them," Arianna decided, giving Ochako an assured nod and smile. "With the Knights of Fafnir, at least we know they are always fated to the Yggdrasil trees," She continued motioning to the great tree ahead of them. As the group looked toward their destination, a great flash of light suddenly appeared by the base of the tree, somewhere among the roots.

"That's him!" Ochako and Arianna both said in unison upon seeing that familiar shine, one or both knights must have transformed.

"Arianna, come on! There isn't any time to waste!" Flavio shouted as he started running toward the tree.

"Right!" She turned to Ochako after motioning for Chloe and Bertrand to go on ahead. "Ready to go, Ochako?

Ochako looked at the tree and gave a determined nod.

_'Izuku, wait for me! I'm coming!'_

"Yes!" She answered as she joined the group properly.

The group had arrived to where the bright light flashed, at a small ruined town that was nestled among the large roots of the great tree. Ochako was awestruck by the dense sight of the town that was built in a classical style of high fantasy, something that was only seen in movies or books in her world. She had to calm down to stop her inner fangirl from completely gushing from the sight of it all. However, in her efforts, she failed to see that Bertrand had separated from the group, leaving Ochako with the three other party members behind.

"Wow…! Looks like no one has lived here for ages," Flavio stated, looking over the buildings Mother Nature had long since reclaimed. Much of the brick and cobblestone were covered with vast amounts of moss, large roots running through and creating wide cracks within the groundwork.

"So, no chance to find any leftover jerky?" Chloe quietly pondered, facing away from the group and gazing over what appeared to be an abandoned storage room.

"Afraid not, Chloe," Flavio laughed, Arianna and Ochako joining in with a chorus of giggles as well.

Their teasing laughter made the tiny mage pout ever so slightly, until she finally noticed that the knight, her blood relative, in their group was gone.

"Bertrand…?" She began calling looking for the knight. "Bertrand!"

"Chloe! Is something wrong?" Flavio suddenly appeared before her, bow and arrow in hand and ready to face on any possible threat along Arianna and Ochako in tow.

"Bertrand is gone!" Chloe frantically cried, clearly distressed. The four of them looked around, finding it strange how the large man could simply disappear like that.

"With all the tall buildings, we could easily get to some high ground and get a better view." Flavio put away his weapons and now looked for a large root to climb on.

"I have a better idea!" Ochako interjected, to everyone's attention.

_'Mr. Urashima said this should be able to work,' _Ochako thought before she used her quirk on herself, kicking off from the ground and began to float upward. Within seconds, she gained a lot of height above to scout for the missing knight.

"Whoa! Is this some kind of magic... w-whoa, hey, what gives!?" Flavio exclaimed right when Arianna went in front of the young man to cover his eyes. Poor Ochako didn't notice that her modesty was far more difficult to hide with a dress that she was wearing while floating in the air. Chloe, on the other hand, stood in awe of seeing the foreign-born princess taking flight like that.

Ochako's eyes scanned over the rest of the town before seeing some kind of reflective light shine, further up the hill and deep within the great tree's roots. In an instant, she knew that was where she needed to go, where they all would begin the real journey ahead.

"Everyone! Over there!" Ochako called out to the group below before pointing to the direction they needed to go. Arianna nodded and began to lead the party toward Ochako's direction.

"Shift..." She whispered, using her quirk to direct herself toward the light. She was quick to spot Bertrand standing there before a great archway and slowly descended, releasing herself from her quirk.

She stood there a few feet away, watching the solemn looking knight… **_the failed Fafnir Knight_**. Ochako remembered from all the times she had reread through the story, how Bertrand had failed his duty and just how unfair life was to the poor man.

**Picking family over his duty,** losing the one he loved, and finally being cursed to wander for the next century.

"Bertrand!" She turned to see the remainder of the party arriving with Chloe running ahead harder than the rest. Ochako couldn't blame the child for that look of fear in her eyes, remembering the part of the story where Bertrand was ready to sacrifice himself and possibly leave his only bit of family left alone in the world.

The tired looking knight turned with a small smile on his face, before Chloe tackled into the man.

"Whoa, whoa... where's the fire?" He chuckled as he comforted the girl, who was doing her best not to cry. Ochako smiled, as the sight reminded her of Eri and it wasn't hard to picture her and Izuku in the place of the two in front of her.

"You could've given us a heads-up, ya know?" Flavio muttered breathlessly, his face expressing his frustration.

"Yes indeed, Bertrand!" Arianna added, her hands at her hips with a small pout on her face. "You worried all of us!"

Bertrand gave a hearty laugh before apologizing, "I know, I know. And I'm sorry about that, but onto the good news: I found it... The gateway."

He motioned to the archway, and the rest of the group took a chance to really look over the site. It was a town center square with an old ruined fountain at the heart of it, and the main archway standing straight ahead where the two roads from both sides of the hill ended. Next to the archway was an old worn pedestal with what appeared to be stone feet and a faded stone tablet that had once held some engraved writing upon it. Parts of stone and marble were shattered about on the base of the pedestal.

"A statue once stood here," Bertrand began. He removed the armor that covered his right arm, revealing a claw hand that was greenish-black with a long hook blade on his forearm. "This is where the knights and their choosers gathered, the daughters of the mark."

Ochako and Arianna looked at each other before making their way forward, before Bertrand put his arm out and motioned them to stop.

"I'm afraid the rest of us won't be able to join you princess," Bertrand added, "It'll be only you and Miss Ochako here who would be able to cross the archway."

"Wait, how do you know that, Bertrand?" Flavio questioned.

"I just tried myself. And when I did, a voice called to me, damning me as a failed Fafnir Knight and saying only '_**True Knights of Fafnir and their markers may cross,'**_" He replied bitterly, "At the very least, I know that they should be making their way up. I felt Jin's presence along with another knight."

"Daughters of the mark," Ochako repeated, thinking over Bertrand's words, "The ones who choose who would become Fafnir Knights."

"It makes sense..." Arianna added before facing at the archway herself.

"Well then… I guess that settles it," Flavio suddenly decided. "You heard the man, go on ahead Arianna. We'll wait for you here to get Jin back to us."

"But…"

"It's okay, we'll be safe here. Now go get that reckless idiot that we've been missing for a while now," Bertrand finished. Chloe, too, simply gave Arianna and Ochako a silent and firm nod, granting them permission in her own way.

"Alright, I will… I will bring him back home," Arianna, with a determined look, pledged to her companions. "I promise – no… I swear I will."

Ochako beamed, another sight that was all too familiar to her.

"Ochako, are you ready to find our lost knights?" The princess extended her marked hand to Ochako, in which she nodded in agreement and met halfway. The two girls waved and bid their goodbyes to their party before heading towards the archway. Ochako would have loved any chance to prolong her time with her childhood favorite characters, but time was not in her favor and she knew she needed to get going. The two daughters of the mark looked at each other one last time before taking the plunge and crossing the archway. The moment their feet stepped through, the sight of the town behind them faded away along with their companions.

**Yet, she knew no fear for them as they were never truly there.**

The two began their ascension quickly, in the hopes that they would make it in time. Ochako knew that she only had until nighttime, a heavy reminder looking back at her where she stood, the sun now setting in the west.

**"****_Pi'oi xuhzwf qlwwiqbzlw zccyic pzbx Zdyry..Xzc azwj zc gzfxbzwf zbcirg...Oicib bxi qlwwiqbzlw, uwj ujj uw isbou jlci lg cijubzhi."_**

* * *

Jin knelt on the ground as he tried to comfort his young friend who trembled violently beside him, laying in a fetal position. Unsure what exactly caused this emotional breakdown, he simply stayed there to make sure that he wouldn't fall from the branch they rested on.

"_I'm sorry...!" _He heard Izuku cry out. _"I'm so sorry!"_

"_I'm a weak coward... I'm no knight..." _He continued trying to deny his truths. "_I'm no hero."_

Izuku felt trapped underneath the crushing guilt of his failures, which only got worse the further he climbed the tree. His memories had slowly and intermittently began to return, and with them came waves of dark emotions crashing into his psyche.

'_I failed all of them... some friend I am...' _His thoughts were ruled by the dark laughter that now haunted him. A laughter that Izuku now feared to relive as he had yet to recover the source from his foggy memories. His family, his friends... and the traitors among them. _'… what a joke...who could even begin to love a failure like me?'_

_Did he really know who truly was his friend or foe?_

_Or did he just deny what he thought was the truth?_

_Did his memories really hold the truth or were they false as well?_

_How did he get here? What really was this place?_

_Who really was Jin?_

And yet as these thoughts continued, a warm inexplicable feeling flooded his head and suddenly, Izuku felt more relaxed. This feeling did not make his fears disappear, but it did put his mind at ease to the point where the tension from his body was lifted and he could think a bit more clearly. In the ease of his guilt, a new memory reappeared.

"Are you feeling better, my friend?" Izuku turned to his climbing companion, who wore a concerned look on his face.

"A little bit..." Izuku said as he collected his thoughts. Out of the whole ordeal, one good thing did come out of this experience. He remembered something new, or more accurately remembered someone very important. "I finally remembered... her..."

Jin looked at Izuku for a moment with a look of puzzlement on his face, before the realization dawned upon him.

"Ah... The one who marked you and made you a Fafnir Knight."

Izuku nodded, amazed how he could have forgotten someone so important. After everything she had done for him, how could he ever have forgotten about her? Even now, as faint as his heartbeat was, the thought of her made it beat just a bit stronger and faster. And now, he had finally remembered her name.

Ochako.

He wanted to know more about Ochako, as he shamefully admitted he could not attach a face to that beautiful name now with his memories still blurred. Bits and pieces of his memories returned as he continued his journey so surely, he will have a semblance of all of his memories if they continued on wards.

"I'm sorry about that Jin..." Izuku apologized to his friend concerning his prior episode. "I'm ready to continue." Jin still looked uneasy, given the complete one-eighty Izuku had pulled in such a short amount of time.

"Are you sure, my friend? It may be better if we rest here a bit longer." Jin tried to reason, but Izuku refused, shaking his head.

"No... I've wasted time for the both of us," He said, regaining a bit of his confidence back. "I know...I know I can do it."

Jin continued to look at Izuku with some hesitation but decided against it once he saw that determined look on Izuku's face. One that held no room for arguments.

"Very well... Let's continue onward."

**"****_Qlwwiqbzlw oiicburzcxij. Nolqiij uc wloaur."_**

* * *

**Author's Notes **

_*(Clue __**Q=C**__;Try and figure the rest of the cryptograms yourself, as these contain a huge clue about the mystery of this arc. There will be more cryptograms in future chapters in this arc.) In addition, my original plan was to use binary but found it too cumbersome, not to mention the AO3 allows users to copy and paste. So I decided to make these clues into cryptograms for you to solve! I may even offer a prize (still thinking about what I could offer) to users who figure them all out correctly. One last note about the cryptograms letters only hide letters, any punctuation marks are part of the sentence itself and do not hide anything._

_**Daughter of the mark: A Term from game itself, which like explained in the text are those fair maidens who would choose a companion to take on the mantle of being a Fafnir Knight. While not central to the story, I added this more as a dash of flavor for the story. _

As is it for now, even without my beta reader, I will still continue to upload as planned and I should be able to upload both

_**Draco Knight Chapter II**_ and _**Chapter XV: The First Move**_

on 6/8/19

Until next time my dear readers and as always with lots of love.

**-X**


	15. The First Move

Wow guys I was pretty pleasantly surprised by most of the reactions from the last update! I have to say I was very nervous about the last chapter given how wildly different it seemed. However like I suspected some of really clever ones who DM'd me, afterward proved that I am on the right track for not only have they been heeding my notes, but have been paying attention to them.

So I'll say this one last time. Guys..._**you don't need to know ANYTHING**____**about about Etrian Odyssey**_, that stuff is mostly fan service for fans of both series. If you don't know anything about it, _**you **_**__**will NOT miss**__**_** out**_ on anything important. As anything important on how the two are related I will address with clues in the text you read.

(Hell I gave you guys a lot of clues in the last chapter, even without the ciphers). Almost all the DMs I got basically proved this, with one reader in particular (not say who exactly since I will never confirm or deny spoilers) with No knowledge of Etrian Odyssey (so they claim, I am inclined to believe them) basically predicted almost everything I have planned correctly for this arc that left me stunned yet delighted that I'm not overdoing it.

As for the ciphers, I can confirm one user as solved them all, and as claimed their prize.

**D3lph0xL0v3r **is the solver and their prize is a short story in the Untold universe for Mirio X Nejire. I am currently brain storming and I'll be working on it shortly.

When we get to _**Arc VII**_ proper, I will reveal what all of the ciphers mean. I also have an update, I will not be committed to Jury Duty so my schedule with remain unchanged, but because I am in a good mood. I have decided to release _**XV**_ early for all of you. Draco Knight II is still scheduled to release tomorrow.

* * *

**Reviews (Chapter 13)**

_**Hankflamion18: **_Am I doing to do Bakucamie? I can neither confirm nor deny that, but I still have surprises up my sleeves when it comes to Katsuki Bakugou's personal relationships in this story. PS (Probationary Student) RS (Recommended Student) 1FYR (First Year Rep) The Liaisons do sound more complex than they actually are, but they really aren't, but I think I did find away to redo the rough introduction from last time that should be a bit more fun and smoother. In practice the liaisons grant a bit more fun in future classroom scenes and let's just say...it will also give me a smoother transition when _**Saga I**_ comes to an end and we begin _**Saga II**_.

_**Patrickthenobleman: **_I always found fics that featured quote "Papazawa" "Vladad" to be funny as hell but I wanted to basically do "Mamamidnight" and all the laughs that comes with, also if anyone is worried about Aizawa's role, He is still a central part of the Hero course will still make common appearances. Also I completely understand want you meant with Inasa and Camie and rest assured I have it "covered"...hahaha. Ah yes the showdown with Overhaul and Izuku I cannot wait to write that if I am being honest, but that is all I can say about it.

_**Ooobserver: **_I am politically inclined in my personal life, and I have enjoyed political dramas and the such. The storybook scene was a new addition that was only implied last time, but I found this scene to be a perfect transition into _**Chapter XIV**_ and expect that to be a trend to foreshadow future events.

_**Sesshoru:**_ I did not. I purposely did not include Gang Orca at the meeting, not to mention there are other heroes involved in the investigation who did not attend as well. This is supposed to be a low key operation which why everyone was mentioned to be in civilian attire and why Nighteye had to appear via digital conference on Nezu's laptop. Gang Orca and others will have their parts shown off later.

_**JaxTheKnight2319: **_I could write fluff for the trio for days and never get bored of it and honestly I wish I did, but sadly I cannot, but I can confirm there will be more fluff to come.

_**inFamousSlyMonkey: **_Glad someone is looking forward to it, and glad someone liked the name change.

* * *

**Recommedation**

**How Does a Moment Last Forever?: By AnimeFan299110**

**Short sweet cup of that good ol' Green Tea. You can find it on FF and AO3...and possibly Wattapad? I'll need to double check that last one.**

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

__**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**__

**_**Saga I: Dusk**_**

**_**Arc II: The Incident **_**

**_**Chapter XV: The first move**_**

* * *

**_"They say it is the first step that costs the effort. I do not find it so. I am sure I could write unlimited 'first chapters'. I have indeed written many." _**

**_-J. R.R. Tolkien_**

* * *

Overhaul was being lead by a squat seedy little man, an information broker in the underworld; one of Giran's interlopers since the man himself has been notably scarce as of late in the underworld. While the squat man himself apparently didn't know who exactly had attacked his crew, he claimed to know the people that did. As he was being lead to a warehouse in the outskirts of town at the dead of night.

"Right this way, Lord Chisaki." the short man wheezed as he opened the warehouse door with the deepest bow his stomach could allow.

The inside of the warehouse was poorly lit, yet Overhaul already knew who was there; the heir-apparent to **The Emperor**: _**Tomura Shigaraki.**_

Their first encounter a couple weeks ago hadn't been the best, no fight had broken out, but clearly a line had been drawn in the sand between the old guard of the underworld and the new order that arrived alongside the plague: _The League of Villains_; though its name may have changed over the years. It was always the same organization that was lead by the one the Yakuza called_**: The Emperor of Darkness,**_ an appropriate title as it was one that many Yakuza believed he earned when he had surfaced all those years ago usurping power from them in the underworld.

No name was ever given from this Emperor, as he simply went by the name of his illness **All For One. **As Overhaul entered the large building his beak mask helped filler some of the stale dusty air of the warehouse, but the germaphobe still couldn't help but feel just a bit more agitated the deeper he went inside of it.

His golden eyes began to scan the room when he finally spotted him. Tomura Shigaraki sporting his signature black-blue outfit with fake hands on his body. Sitting on a small wooden chair in the center of the warehouse with a small light that hung over his head like a spotlight. As Overhaul moved to face Tomura keeping a respectful and healthy distance from one another; knowing one wrong touch from either could mean their untimely ends.

"Overhaul," Tomura said softly addressing his guest leaning ever so slightly forward from his seat.

"Shigaraki," Overhaul answered back sharply standing firm.

"Word is that you and your gang was recently attacked...how very sad," Tomura said in a teasing voice.

"Does this conversation have a point Shigaraki?" Overhaul said annoyed by the man's taunting. "I'm here to talk _business_."

"Heheheh, it does indeed my friend," Tomura continued as he then proceeded to get up to his feet. "So to start on our _business,_ I'm aware that you are currently looking for three things correct?" He added while holding up three fingers on his left hand.

Overhaul remained silent as not to betray his own thoughts, trying to be careful as not to show weakness.

"The first is oblivious. You want to know who attacked you and little gang of bird boys. Luckily for you I happen to know who did it." He started while listing each answer with the three fingers while pacing around the around the room. Always making sure he kept a steady eye on Overhaul.

Hidden behind the beak mask, Overhaul felt a twitch of anger run across his mouth.

"Second," Tomura continued lowering the second finger. "I know from my own spies in the cops that you lost almost all of your main manpower, though you still have a number of grunts under you, but I know what you really need of some more_"expendables" _in your party right?"

Overhaul's golden eyes narrowed. Tomura had been right on the money so far.

"And finally the one that left me the most curious, an albino girl with a small horn on her head is that right?" Tomura finished up as he lowered the final finger, the hidden grin on his face at its widest.

Overhaul couldn't stop his eyes from widening.

**_No one was supposed to know about Eri. _**

"Now, I don't really care about the girl, mostly because we're villains and I don't kink shame here but..."

Overhaul was about to motion forward disgusted by Tomura's implications until he saw Tomura's eyes. Instantly his muscles tensed, unable to move closer as he looked into those ruby-red eyes that seemed to drill into the very depths of his soul. Eyes that chilled him to the very bone as they spoke only one word of warning.

**Death**

"Now now, like I said _Overhaul_," Tomura begin speaking again; blinking and looking away from the Yakuza boss.

Overhaul could feel his body returning to normal, but was clearly shaken from what ever the hell that was. He knew about Tomura's quirk involved the use of his hands so why did he freeze when he looked at his eyes?

Tomura however didn't seemed to care about Overhaul's face currently trying to figure about his other quirk, instead continuing with his speech to as not to let the yakuza boss find out and keep him on his toes.

"I don't care about your life style choices, we're villains and you should be able to do what ever the hell you want._ But... _what I do care about is possibly..." Tomura breathed in before motioning with his hand as if he was reaching out; "_l___ending__ a helping hand to you and before you even ask...of course I want something from you."

Tomura laughed as he could see the frustration on the man's face despite the mask.

"I know you are not stupid enough to believe that I would simply do this out of the goodness of my heart. _No_ I need your help with something. Something I believe we can both come to some agreement, help me with this and I will aid you: funding, spies and revenge."

Overhaul looked at Tomura with gritted teeth. Some of the other Yakuza clans had begun encroaching on his territory; like sharks who could smell blood in the water coming for a feeding frenzy. He knew that he didn't have many options and he knew this could be his best window of opportunity here to get him back on course with his own pursuits and regain some of his lost strength. Even if it would mean having to work the wretched, then again when seeking a cure for a plague; a good doctor would work with the sick.

After a long pause and with a small silent sigh of defeat Overhaul finally answered.

"I will hear what you have to say."

Tomura grinned under his hand mask.

"Good, I think you will come to agree with me on this..._You see_."

* * *

Ochako was deep in thought as she and her two new friends took the train to start their first day of school. She watched as the as two boys began catching up with each other. She was happy to see that Izuku seemed to be far more relaxed with Katsuki compared to what she saw often when she would visit his house. Izuku always seemed be slightly more on edge in her presence and given from what she observed herself, Izuku didn't seem to have any other friends save for the explosive ash blond boy.

It often made her feel bad since Katsuki wasn't able to visit as often like he used to thankfully the last few days had shown some real process for Eri as she slowly managed to adjust and not be overwhelmed by the number of visitors to Izuku's apartment. She still did struggle a bit more when they took her outside, but progress was being made. As Ochako sat in the train across from the two boy, her mind drifted to what Katsuki had said to her earlier just before meeting up with Izuku at the train station.

* * *

"_Uraraka." _

_She had heard a voice to her left as she arrived at the train station to wait for Izuku, she turned to see that Katsuki was already there and had started walking up to her. It had only been a day or so when they last saw each other. _

"_Not __**'Round face'**__ anymore Bakugou?" She asked with the faintness hint of sass in her voice that made the ash blond boy crack up._

"_Nah, you earned my respect for placing third and saving that nerdy brother of mine," he answered with a small grin that vanished into a frown just as quickly as it came. _

_"Be real with me for a moment Uraraka, I'm not about to get in to this whole business with you two, especially since Izuku's been so much happier now than I have seen him in years," His face wore the strangest mask of anger that had a carried of strange sense of calmness._

"_Bakugou..." Uraraka said surprised seeing this side of Katsuki given all that she had seen from the explosive boy._

"_Look, I'll just say this. I can read the tea leaves and can see that you like him already..ah! Stop it," He added motioning Ochako not to interrupt as her face grew beet red. "I already know that look in your face and it's the same as his. Stop it, I mean for fucks sake you basically adopted the Unicorn already and calling each other by your first names, don't act like isn't anything there." _

_This proved to Ochako that Katsuki was not only intelligent, but observant, he may be brash, but he is by no means stupid or wrong in this case. She had grown very fond of Izuku despite the relatively short time she knew him. She found him very sweet and earnest, but she also knew that he was holding back on her. There was something that prevented Izuku from being hundred percent honest with her. _

_The explanation he gave to everyone about how he knew All Might after saving Katsuki felt rehearsed and some things didn't add up, he was hiding something, but not because he wanted to lie, but because he felt that he needed to; that he had no choice but to lie. _

"_It's not that...I'm just not sure he trusts me all that much yet..." Ochako responded sadly. _

"_It's not that he doesn't...look it's not my place to tell you why, but I know the reason why it seems like it. I've known the nerd since we were babies; since our parents knew each other...which is why I'm only going to say this once," he said with an small air of tension growing. "That nerd is basically my brother and he's been through enough, I don't care how or why, but if anyone...ANYONE, tries to make his life worse than it is now they will deal with me...you get what I'm saying...__**right**__?"_

_Ochako looked at the Katsuki in the eyes, it only made her wonder what must have the two gone through for Katsuki to be so protective of Izuku. She was glad that Izuku at least didn't suffer alone. Katsuki had been there for him and she wanted to be there now too._

"_I understand," Ochako said firmly. In an instant the tension broke and Katsuki actually smiled at her. _

"_Good...now how is the Unicorn doing? I know that I can't visit as often as before, but I doesn't mean I still can't be the fun uncle without knowing her better now can't I?" _

"_Pffft," Ochako sputtered caught off guard by Katsuki's sudden change in demeanor when it came to Eri; remembering the story of the candy apple he had gotten for her, when Izuku had told him that she loved apples. _

"_I didn't see her yesterday since I needed to get all my stuff ready for today, but I know they got her a brand new bed the day before yesterday." _

"_Is that so? Oh look who's here."_

* * *

Ochako hoped that Izuku would be able to be more open with her in time, even if it was only as friends. Izuku was nice enough to deserve that much. As the train came to a stop, the trio got up from their seats and promptly exited the train. The two boys continued their conversation about Katsuki's father Masaru who had recently recovered from his injuries.

"Nearly a month long wait just for the specialist to fix his back in like eight minutes, what kind of bullshit is that?!" Katsuki complained loudly.

"I mean healing quirks aren't universal Kacchan, some work in very specific ways or some can even strain the practitioner if they use them without rest. I'm just glad Uncle Masa is finally back on his feet proper."

"Yeah yeah..." Katsuki said dismissively.

"We're looking of Class 1-A right? I'm glad we're all in the same class," Ochako added as the trio continued the search the hallway for their new homeroom class. After a while they found the sign that read: **1-A**.

"Found it...holy shit..this bitch is huge!" Katsuki said upon seeing the door. "Why the fuck is so big?"

"Quirks can make people come in all shapes and sizes Kacchan, like big sis Yuu or Kyu," Izuku answered, making Katsuki click his tongue at the mention of his cousin and proceed to open the door for the trio to walk in.

The room was nearly full with students, it appeared to them that they may have been the last ones to arrive. As the room was already buzzing with light chatter as some made efforts to get to know one another; others remained to themselves altogether. One pair however seemed to know each other well judging from their conversation

_'Ah...shit._' Katsuki thought as he spotted the familiar tall boy with blue hair that had called him and Izuku out during the exam, he was the only one standing, speaking to another boy with short red-white hair and flawless features on his sharp face. The two seemed to be in quite conversation with the tall one being very lively with his movements that punctuated his speech.

* * *

"So she is getting trickier huh," Shouto said looking at his friend who had tears streaming down his face. Tenya had been struggling with some of Hikari's new methods of pranking him.

"I swear, I know Hatsume has something to do with it! The last time she came over with Yuno she brought a box that disappeared the second I looked away!"

"It doesn't mean she's involved..." Shouto continued in his deadpan fashion. He knew full well what the box contained, after all he helped Mei find the perfect hiding spot within the Iida household.

"I mean she could have just gotten part of my sister's ice quirk to make the steam?"

"It was a clearly a smoke bomb!" Tenya said voice strained.

"It sounds more like paranoia to me," Shouto answered with a small mischievous smirk on his face.

Tenya was about to respond in frustration when he heard the door open. The two friends both turned to see three new students entering their homeroom. The trio were already familiar to Tenya, Shouto's eyes however were drawn instantly to the green haired boy, his father the Pro-Hero Endeavor had told him and Tenya everything important that they needed to know about him.

_'So he's Draco Knight's son huh?'_

"Ah, it's you! Good morning!" He heard Tenya say as he began marching up to the new trio snapping Shouto out of his thoughts.

"Wait...Ten-" Shouto began before he realized that Tenya's full attention had turned to the trio.

Izuku tensed up as Tenya grew close, with a wary looking Katsuki and a confused looking Ochako.

"I am Tenya Iida from the Somei Private Academy and I must say I completely misjudged you back at the examination, therefore I must apologize to you!" He said with a sudden deep bow in front of Izuku.

This completely threw the trio for a loop, Katsuki had remained quiet. He was had been ready to fire back for his earlier stunt at the entrance exam, but between his need to be more reserved and this sudden change in attitude. Katsuki wasn't sure how exactly to proceed from here.

However once he was figured that the tall boy was clearly speaking to Izuku, Katsuki used the moment to look over the rest of the class and scope out the competition. One student instantly caught his attention, due to his appearance. Katsuki slowly felt his blood go cold as he looked at the boy seated a few feet away from him.

Tall, with wild jet black hair, and piercing golden yellow eyes.

_'Uncle?' _

"If you're here to just socialize you can get out now." They heard a voice say behind them; snapping Katsuki out of his thoughts. Everyone faced the door way and found a bunch a students gathered outside who in turn were looking down on the floor. Katsuki followed their grazes down as well and saw man in what a appeared to be a mustard yellow sleeping bag draining a juice box rapidly. He looked like a corpse.

"Good now that you've all shut up, get dressed in your P.E. outfits; we're going out to the field." The zombieman ordered the class flatly.

"Umm, I can ask who you are first?" Ochako asked being wary of the stranger.

"Shouta Aizawa," The man answered as he managed to arise from the ground while still wearing the sleeping bag. "Head of the Department of Heroics here at UA,"

Katsuki flinched at this statement as he now learned to whom he would have to report to soon.

"And I am here to assess all of you in both Class A and B," The man added while pointing his thumb at the other students outside the classroom. "Now I am not going to be repeating myself again. Change out into your P.E. gear and head out."

* * *

Inko was cheerfully having tea with Mitsuki for the first time in weeks; seated at the kitchen table. In the living room Eri was currently trying her best to read a book Ochako had left behind that had recently been used as bedtime story; however the young girl had been completely enthralled by the old tome and was now trying her best to continue the story without waiting for Ochako to read it to her at bedtime.

"It's nice to have the place to ourselves, and enjoy some quiet time you know?" Inko said serenely as she enjoyed the warm cup of green tea.

"Eh I still prefer my home to be a bit rowdy. It doesn't feel right without it," Mitsuki answered back with a small grin on face.

"Did Yuu finally move out?"

"Not yet, but you should have seen how happy she was after the recent elections, I hear they're already begin over turning some of the more damning bits of the "volatile" classifications, but some things are going take longer to change than others so Yuu should still be in our home for a little while longer."

"Well that's good, shame it couldn't happen before all those students got rejected for Hero courses in the country. I was so scared for Izuku when he went up for the evaluation," Inko said quietly as she refilled their cups from the pot next to them.

"Heh you were scared? Trying having Katsuki as a son. That hot firecracker was rejected the first time before agreeing to go to that one month of counseling camp remember? I knew those fights would come back to haunt him," Mitsuki sighed. "Which brings to me to something important I wanted to talk to you about."

"That is?" Inko said concerned seeing her friend's sudden change in tone.

"Your two guests," Mitsuki answered with a whisper while motioning her head to one of the said guests sitting in the living room. Mitsuki had noticed that every picture that featured Hisashi was still being hidden away.

"Ah," Inko sighed in understanding.

"Do they know...about Hisashi?" Mitsuki asked.

"Eri I think is a bit young to understand the situation, she hasn't asked about any father figure in Izuku's life. As for Uraraka...I've talked about it with Izuku and we're both terrified about her possible reaction if she found out."

"I can't blame you two given the last few times people found out. Now this is next topic is a bit harder for me to talk about but, I'm concerned about Eri's condition." Mitsuki said with a touch of guilt in her voice, given her previous jokes about the topic she was about to bring up.

"What you do mean? We've been taking her to check-ups every week with both a pediatrician and a psychiatrist who specializes in children dealing with mental and physical trauma." Inko answered with a confused look on her face.

"She reminds me of a little boy, I met back at the counseling camp when me and Masaru had to attend for Katsuki." She began saying.

"He was there trying to cope with the removal of his foster family. He had heavily imprinted on them and when it came time to separate them it came a real sad headache," Mitsuki finished up with a look of both frustration and sadness.

Inko looked at her friend and began thinking hard about how to respond.

"I'm not trying to ruin the little fantasy here Inko. I think it's cute...But as far as you know, this is only temporary and what if you ultimately have to separate? I'm just saying this because I don't want you, Izu, Pink cheeks or Eri to be hurt should the worst case scenario hits you know?"

Inko looked down.

She knew that Mitsuki was actually making a good point and it would have to be something they would need to discuss in more detail with the professionals, the two teens and the Pro who had entrusted her with Eri. Inko frowned the more she thought about it, before looking at the snow-haired child again. She had already grown very fond of sweet little girl that had clearly been through Hell, and she would be damned to let her go unless she knew that the child was going to be left in good hands.

Seeing her best friend's mood turn Mitsuki tried to up lift her dampened spirits with a positive spin on the possibilities.

"But then again Inko, maybe I'm wrong and you'll get to keep her. Then you can go and get bragging rights on being the sexist single grandmother available." Mitsuki said playfully with a mischievous smirk.

It was unfortunate that Inko happened to have been taking a sip during Mitsuki's comment and proceeded to spit take; coughing violently as she tried to regain her composure.

"Mitsuki!" She managed to yelped her face turning a burning red as she nervously as she began reaching for a table cloth to clean the mess she just made.

"What? It's true!" Mitsuki said with a laugh. "You wouldn't have to worry so long about getting grand kids. I mean my ass is either going to be very old or in the grave before my firecracker of a son finds a girl that meets his _"High Standards"_ and brings me a grandchild. Then again on the other hand I don't have to worry about a possible teen pregnancy."

Inko knocked on the table shuttering at the thought. "Shut your mouth and knock on wood Mitsuki! That's how you get jinxed! I'm pretty sure Izuku and Uraraka aren't even together...yet...officially...and even then I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be that reckless."

Mistsuki however did not knock the table opting instead to simply continue teasing her friend."I'm just saying! I mean I remember back in third year when you and Hisashi..."

_"MITSUKI!_" Inko flustered face now completely red, much to her friend's amusement.

"I mean, I didn't blame you for doing so! He had almost died that time! It happens!"

"Inki? Miki? Are you mad?" They heard Eri ask.

The two elder women turned to face the young girl eyes filled with worry. Inko grateful for a chance to drop the subject, began to calm down and started speaking softly ease the child's worries.

"Oh, no! Dearie, we're just having a bit too much fun and maybe were a bit too loud in our girl talk. _Isn't that right Mitsuki?_" Inko added with a touch of warning in her voice.

* * *

At the start of the opening ceremonies Nemuri Kayama better known as the Pro-Hero Midnight should have been over the moon; proudly standing in front her home class as a newly minted Homeroom teacher. Instead she and her fellow educator Sekijirou Kan better known as the Pro-Hero Vlad King respectively stood there annoyed with their new boss's sudden impromptu change of plan with their students.

"Another logical ruse..._my perfectly rounded ass Shouta_..." Nemuri growled quietly through gritted teeth.

Nemuri had been so giddy with delight earlier that morning when she was her busy putting on her hero costume and made her way to work. Ever since she had joined the UA teaching staff years ago she had always wanted a chance to be a homeroom teacher, applying for it every year. She still couldn't believe that she finally got the job, especially after all her previous rejections with reasons ranging from quote:

"_**Inappropriate."**_

To,

"_**We don't need another incident with your outfit, once was enough, twice was bad luck, but thrice was too many."**_

And her personal favorite.

"_**A number of your last Sex Ed students needed therapy afterward." **_

Nemuri however had simply said boo to all of that noise and continued trying applying for it again and again every year. Now here she was a homeroom teacher...without her homeroom class.

So to say that Nemuri and Sekijirou were annoyed with their new boss was an understatement. As they stood at the opening ceremony without their students. They had been told that Shouta was simply going to lead them to the ceremony, sure history wasn't on their side, but he wasn't a homeroom teacher anymore. Now they stood there waiting for the ceremony to end; ready to run to the field and go claim their students from the clutches of Shouta's vile dead looking hands.

Finally when Principal Nezu clapped his hands with remaining students concluding the opening ceremonies. The two Pros immediately began running toward the testing field with murder in their eyes. All Might who knew of the plan ahead of time decided to follow as well albeit being far more subtle about it.

* * *

"Come on everyone. You got this! Show the true passion in your hearts!" Inasa yelled out to most of both Class A and B as he zoomed by; claiming another lap in the track test using the powerful winds to propel himself further ahead of everyone else.

He was followed shortly by Shouto using his ice to slide; tailing behind the wind user. Behind him Tenya ran using his engine legs only having to slow down in corner turns or when passing by other students again.

Behind him, Katsuki and Izuku were neck-in-neck running; Katsuki using bursts from his quirk and Izuku keeping a steady ten percent of his quirk active. And finally Momo who was using a bike she made for the test, ringing the bell as she rode; in that hopes that everyone else would find it encouraging as she looped past everyone else for the second and third time.

Everyone else who was spread fairly evenly throughout the track, looking at the leading six with some manner of envy, awe or were left simply flabbergasted at the ones who over took them by leaps and bounds each of them making some sort of comment toward them.

"Damn that is so manly!"

"Oh god. Someone just kill me already."

"This so isn't lit fam."

"Anyone else feel overwhelmed and out gunned?"

"We have the sword of Damocles named expulsion hanging over our heads, shut up and keeping running!"

"What did you expect from a mix of the recommendation students and the top two from the entrance exam?"

"Oh god, that face is going to haunt me!"

"Hey who are those two?"

"Is that Midnight?"

"And Blood King!"

"It's Vlad King idiot!"

"Doesn't it mean the same thing?"

Shouta had been laying on the ground wrapped in his sleeping bag with the creepiest smile plastered on his face. He had given his normal threat of expulsion to the students, and while this time it was an empty threat sure, but he was getting good results from everyone in both classes. Nezu had ironically reduced his trigger-happy expulsion powers with his promotion, but he could still recommend expulsion to anyone and besides the students didn't know that fact yet so he was going to milk it for all what it was worth.

"Eraserhead!" He heard two familiar voices call out to him.

_'Ah damn it.' _

The fun was over as he saw his two co-workers; the classes' homeroom teachers had arrived to rescue their students, Nemuri and Seikijirou.

The two pros took a moment to catch their breath, having come all the way from the other side of the school to get to this specific field. Nemuri was especially out breath due to having run in those heels that must have been murder on her feet. When Sekijirou recovered and with a few veins now popping out in face, looked at Shouta with annoyance.

"Hello Vlad, Midnight nice day we're having right? How was the ceremony?" Shouta asked nonchalantly.

"The ceremony would have been lovely if Midnight and I weren't just standing there alone without our students looking like complete jackasses," Seikijirou snapped quietly as not to make a scene in front of the students, Nemuri however had different plans as when she finally caught her own breath; stood tall as she grabbed her whip from her hip and cracked it to catch everyone's attention.

"Everyone please gather up and divide yourselves by class please!" She called out to the relief of every student.

Izuku was about to gather with the rest when he saw the shortest boy in their course, one who had purple orb like hair on the ground struggling to get up. The little guy had collapsed in the middle of the track exam and fell far behind everyone else, but Izuku could tell that he had tried very hard during the exam. However before Izuku could go up and offer any help him up, one of the girls from Class 1-B with what appeared to have green vines for hair had gone ahead and helped the boy up.

The boy thanked her for her assistance and looked pretty shaken up, Izuku couldn't blame him. He had come dead last in almost every test as they had all taken their department head's threat very seriously.

Shouta sighed as the two homeroom teachers broke up his fun, it was the last test anyway so it ultimately didn't matter as he still manage to get the results he needed to form this semester's teams. As the classes divided back into classes A and B respectively he stood up and announced the results of the exam via the projection. Inasa Yoarashi from class 1-B whom many had dubbed _"The Windbreaker" _placed first and dead last was the name Minoru Mineta of Class 1-A. The short boy was pale and looked as if he was ready to just kneel over and die.

Nemuri saw that Shouta had indeed been up to his old tricks.

"Hello, everyone I am Nemuri Kayama, you may know me better as the Rated-R Pro-Hero Midnight and I am your homeroom teacher 1-A," she began to say to her new students who looked shocked that a hero like her was going to be their homeroom teacher. "And don't worry everyone you are safe, no one is being expelled at least not in my class at least." She finished with sigh.

That was the breaking point for Minoru who finally did kneel over and pass out from the stress combined with the sudden relief that his career hadn't ended before it could even formally start. The same could be said for mostly everyone else who the threat seriously.

"Clean up in aisle five!" Yelled a blond boy with a black lighting shaped streak in his hair and bright golden eyes getting a few laughs from both classes.

"I'm sorry your name please?" Nemuri asked the boy with a false touch of sweetness in her voice.

"Denki Kaminari," the boy answered with a sly charming wink; getting some getting laughs, while others either cringed and or mentally facepalmed themselves.

"Well then Mr. Kaminari, thank you very much for volunteering to carry your classmate to the nurse's office." Nemuri said with an innocent smile that seemed to contain a threatening aura behind her.

"Ww-wwait what?" Denki said looking shocked; causing almost everyone else in the class begin laughing at him now. "Ah...crap." he finished, his shoulders slumping as he went to pick up his classmate.

"For everyone one else please head back to your homeroom, once you get changed back into your normal uniforms and pick up a syllabus. We'll take care of proper introductions and seating arrangements when we get there...now let's go!" Nemuri said with another crack of her whip making some of her students cringe with fear hoping to avoid getting on the wrong side of their homeroom teacher as they broke off and walked away.

"Good job so far Midnight." She heard Shouta say. "You sounded like a real homeroom teacher there."

"Shove it Shouta." Nemuri said annoyed at the man's growing grin before walking away. Shouta laid there for a few more moments left there alone to be with his thoughts when he heard those familiar heavy footsteps.

"Hello All Might."

* * *

Izuku and company finally sat in their temporary seats, refreshed and much more calm that they were earlier when Nemuri walked in.

"Alright everyone, bit of an awkward introduction to the first day aside. It is very nice to meet you all, now I think some basic introductions are in order so we can all get to know each other a bit better." She said sweetly. "Come on now don't be shy, I'll start picking people if I don't get any volunteers."

Tenya promptly stood up and started his introduction as though he had practiced it. "I am Tenya Iida formerly of Somei Private Academy! I am hoping a solid and productive year of training and education from the country's best hero course!"

"Thank you very much for being first Mr. Iida, does anyone have any questions for him class?"

Shouto raised his hand, much to Tenya's confusion.

"Yes?"

"Why did you grow nervous during the 50 meter dash?"

Tenya gave his long time friend a strained look. _'Shouto are you really my friend and not the Devil?'_

"The voice from the robot reminded me of someone who scares me." Tenya said solemnly adjusting his glasses. His thoughts turning to that familiar pink hair and cross-haired yellow eyes.

As the introductions continued with little incident, at least until Katsuki had a need to learn something that had been bothering him for a while. Once a tall boy with messy jet black hair and bright golden eyes began speaking was when he struck.

"Hi everyone the name is Ryu Kasei it's very nice to meet all of you!" He said cheerfully with a wide smile.

"It's nice to meet you as well Mr. Kasei, does anyone have questions for him?" Nemuri asked the class.

Katsuki raised his hand with a neutral look on his face.

Ryu looked at Katsuki in surprise before saying. "What's up buddy?"

"What's your quirk?" Katsuki asked noting he didn't see this boy use his quirk during the exam.

Ryu gave a look of surprise "Oho! It's pretty sweet, I call it _**Dragon Slayer**_**.**" He answered with a crafty grin before blowing a small puff of flames from his mouth that quickly dissipated in the air.

Katsuki saw a small twitch run through Izuku when he heard the name of the quirk, add that with Ryu's physical appearance didn't help with Katsuki's mood that was rapidly turning sour.

"Don't bullshit what kind of name is that?!" Katsuki growl sitting up straight to look at the boy right into his eyes.

"Hey hey! Okay! It's really called _**Fire Eater**_, but _**Dragon Slayer**_ sounds so much cooler no?" He said trying to laugh off Katsuki's more direct tone. "I read a manga from ages ago where the MC* has a similar ability like my quirk so I went with it." Ryu added hoping to quell this sudden aggression that left him a bit wary of the ash blond teen now.

_'Might have to keep an eye on this guy.' _The two ironically thought at the same time.

"I like it!" Denki suddenly called out from his desk distracting the two boys from each other.

Ryu taking the opportunity answered like Denki did earlier "Eeeyyy~" which include a round of finger guns much to the amusement or annoyance of others in the classroom some believing now that the two were peas of the same pod.

The last student was a silver haired beauty with blue eyes and glasses.

"My name is Kashiko Sekigai and my quirk is called Sensor Chart and I'm looking forward to working with all of you this year." The girl said with a confident smile.

* * *

And with that introductions were over and just in time for the bell to ring. Most of the day went off like a normal first school day with their normal core classes. As their first day came to a close Izuku received a text from All Might.

"Ochako, Kacchan I need to go to the teacher's lounge for a minute. I'll be right back." Izuku told his friends.

"Make it quick or have or we'll have to wait to catch the next train." Katsuki said while Ochako was busy texting a few old friends from Mie and her parents on how her first day at UA went.

* * *

When Izuku arrived in the lounge he found All Might in his skinny form sitting calmly on the couch. It had been the first time they really spoken since Eri came into his life.

"How have you been young Midoriya?" Toshinori asked calmly as he motioned for the boy to take a seat opposite of him.

"Good sir." Izuku answered with a lot of questions swirling in his head at the moment as he eased into the soft couch.

"Life at home seems to have gotten much more interesting for you now huh?" Toshinori coughed with a gentle smile.

"Yeah it has been much more lively now...but how did you know that?"

Toshinori chuckled. "Well since I do technically employ your mother now, I do expect progress reports to see how young Eri is doing, but that aside I've actually have been speaking with your mother often ever since I got settled into my role here."

"All Might about that...I've been feeling strange about what you did for us...I mean...please don't get me wrong, I'm grateful , I truly am, but I can't help but feel like we are being given a handout for our struggles," Izuku managed to sigh out.

Toshinori coughed for a moment before answering. He knew after speaking with Inko a fair number of times that sooner or later Izuku would bring up this subject as well.

"I understand," Toshinori started, " it was a point of pride for me as well young Midoriya. Here I am the Number One Hero in the world. The Symbol of Peace and yet I couldn't do much to save the one who saved me from certain death and allowing his good name to be dragged through the mud and allowed his family to be persecuted."

Izuku forced himself to look down with his eyes suddenly burning as he did his best not to cry.

"I have all this money young Midoriya," Toshinori continued, "and while I can and do donate to various charities often. I'm still left with far more than I could ever need. If I could, I would simply clear your father's name in a heartbeat, so your lives could return to a sense of normalcy, but it is beyond my power alone. "

"Instead I did...no what I could do at the moment is to do my part to help you and your family out. I know your mother is a proud lady and like I said, we've been speaking at length about this very subject. You are my successor and now your teacher; my main goal is to make sure you have all the tools to succeed and one of those tools is peace of mind at home, but it seems I may have been wrong again please forgive me."

"No, no please All Might I didn't mean for it to sound like that!" Izuku pleaded to his long time hero. "I don't need an apology I just wanted more clarity I guess." He was feeling better about the subject now, but he needed to swallow the rest of his pride for the remaining thoughts of guilt.

"Now that I hope we got that out of the way. I wanted to speak to you about something important that came up regarding young Eri." Toshinori began after a brief moment of silence.

"And that is?"

"We need you to bring her here to UA for a proper evaluation of her quirk."

"Couldn't we do that with one of the pediatricians who specializes in that?" Izuku questioned.

"We could, but the investigation about young Eri's past has made a small breakthrough and we managed to recover quite of bit of information about her." Toshinori answered, as he recently received the reports of about new information about Eri found in the yakuza hideout that had been investigated after the fire.

"Really?!" Izuku said excitedly hoping the information would help Eri.

"Yes...unfortunately it was a mixed bag however. Her parents aren't in the picture at all and the rest of the information; mixed in with the doctor's reports from her first physical that I have received from your mother only confirmed some of our fears."

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked face now full of concern.

"If the reports are correct...She had been a test subject for a group of villains that spared her no mercy in their experiments."

At that very moment Izuku could suddenly feel burning anger in the pit of his stomach as he processed those words.

A test subject...a human test subject, Eri...a child had been a being used as a test subject.

_'What kind of monsters could do that to such a sweet child?'_

He had seen the scars on her limbs so many times by now, the fear in her eyes and the screams when her night terrors got the worst of her. All Izuku could feel was pure anger, twisting in his stomach. Katsuki's voice answering for his thoughts.

**_'THOSE...BASTARDS! THOSE EVIL SICK TWISTED MOTHERFUCKERS! IF I EVER CAME ACROSS THEM I WILL...'_**

"Young Midoriya!" Toshinori suddenly called out.

"Huh?!" Izuku breathed as he was suddenly snapped out of his dark thoughts.

"Are you okay?" Toshinori asked with a large look of concern on his face.

"Y-ye-yes sir." Izuku responded as he relaxed back into his seat with a developing headache.

All Might looked at the boy; processing what he just saw.

_'I swear I saw his eyes flash red for just a second...I pray it was just a trick of the afternoon light.' _

"That aside," Toshinori decided to continue, "we found that her quirk could possibly be very dangerous. Enough that even with the looser reforms that are currently being proposed in the Diet, her quirk could still be enough place her to be placed into isolation."

"_**NO!" **_Izuku yelled suddenly standing up as a mental image of Eri being left all alone crying again ran across his head, only to realize how rude his outburst was, he quickly bowed and apologized to the man.

"It's okay young Midoriya, and this is why we want to do the evaluation here at UA; she may have to attend with you here for a week or two, but I've already spoken about it with the staff here and we got the go ahead."

"Okay...but is that really the best idea All Might?"

"Given that you and young Uraraka have been able to deal with young Eri out in public. I don't see the harm in bring her here as well, it will only be a short period of time and if this all goes well, we can upgrade her status and can even get her formally enrolled in a school for herself." Toshinori responded warmly trying to lift the mood.

"That would be good, mom and I have been thinking a lot about that for her you know?"

All Might nodded, before speaking up once again with a slightly related subject.

"Ah that reminds, my dear young man...what exactly is your relationship with miss Uraraka?"

"W-w-what?" Izuku stuttered; his face turning red with embarrassment. "We're just friends...I think?"

"You two are on a first name basis and I did first meet the lass in her apartment with you, I hope that you haven't been exploring youth too much my successor." Toshinori lightly teased his young apprentice.

"I swear All Might! We haven't done anything like that!" Izuku said hoping to drop the subject before he dropped dead from the sheer embarrassment.

"Good now...does she know anything critical?" Toshinori added his tone turning serious.

A change that Izuku welcomed."No sir. Nothing about my powers and we've even managed to lay low about my father for the time being."

"You're worried aren't you my boy?"

"Yes, sir...history hasn't been the most kind to me, when people discover the truth about me and connections with my father...I just hope with her that things will be different, if not for me, but for Eri."

Toshinori smiled. Izuku still placed others before himself.

"If you want and only if you really ever plan to tell her about your father. I can be there by your side to help explain anything and address any concerns she may have about you."

"You would do that for me All Might?" Izuku said surprised by the offer.

"Of course my boy. Now go on home, I'm pretty sure I've taken more than enough of your time already. Speak with your mother when you get the chance about the new plan. She knows most of the details already but I think you and young Uraraka should make a basic plan with her about it, I will make sure we will have a guest pass ready for her here."

"Yes sir and thank you again sir," Izuku said bowing to Toshinori before heading out the door.

Toshinori sat there his tired eyes looking at the setting sun. He still had more work to do before the day was finished.

* * *

Sir Nighteye sat with the greatest look of annoyance in his face as he was basically forced to listen to the current Representative speaking before the Diet. Being forced to stomach the man's diatribe against foreign heroes in Japan and proposing new legislation to make it more difficult for said foreign heroes to get licensed in Japan. All in the efforts to promote a nationalist agenda under the guise of preserving a sense of quality and trust that only homegrown Pro-heroes could provide.

It didn't help that the man speaking Representative Kimura headed the committee for H.U.C.

"Ever since the incidents with the _"Hero" _Captain Celebrity**" The man continued his rant echoing throughout the grand stage that was the whole legislative body of the country.

Nighteye sighed,

"Some people never let things go," he whispered to himself has he rubbed his temples.

Captain Celebrity had been a Pro-Hero in the U.S. who had been forced to come to Japan in disgrace due to the many affairs and small time scandals that plagued his career. However the man had seen real progress the last few years in trying to get his act together.

"Hey Sasaki," Nighteye turned to the young man next to him, another representative by the name of Akihisa Yoshi a member of his own coalition, but Nighteye often found him to be boorish and immature and did not hold his breath when it came to his...commentaries. Nighteye still could not believe that such a man could ever gotten voted into office.

"Yes Yoshi?" Nighteye answered knowing he would regret opening his mouth to the boyish man.

"Ya think Kimura's wife took a round with the big C? It would explain the hard-on Kimura has for the guy." The man said with a perverted grin plastered on his face.

It took an great amount of willpower for Nighteye not to smack his fellow representative upside his head, his political allies weren't much better than the those in the Neocon movement, but he ultimately needed to work with them. After a few more moments he finally decided to answer the boyish Representative with,"I do not know if that would be the case, but even if it was, it does not reason to condemn other foreign pro-heroes who work here or foreign students with hopes here."

"Yeah that would suck, there's this one pro that I met when I went on a tour of I-Island. An American Pro: _Cow Lady II, _lord have mercy the knockers on her. And she does a lot of joint work with our pros here be a real shame if she suddenly found herself not working here anymore."

Nigheye glared at the young man now, who upon seeing Nighteye's face finally seemed to get the message.

_'Foolish boy.'_ Nighteye thought to himself, he could barely stomach the life of politics;longing for his days of being a Pro, hell being All Might's sidekick was better than this. _'I miss my agency...I miss my old office...I miss Tickle Hell...'_

"Thank you Representative." The Speaker of the House spoke up as Representative Kimura took his seat with the rest of the parties allied with the Neocons. "The bill of that the Representative as proposed is now ready for a vote."

Nighteye looked down seeing many in the Neocons already handing in their votes. He voted _**"No"**_ and prayed that the votes would go his way, as there were some on his side that agreed with the neocons with this topic, still he was bidding his time, he had his own bills to propose and the moment the committees get reshuffled, he'll be able to pounce and call for a vote to override the National Police Commission to set-up a proper internal affairs investigation.

Sooner or later Kai Doumeki along with his suspected partners would have cross hairs squared directly on them.

* * *

**Author's commentary**

***Fire Eater vs. Dragon Slayer...**Ryu is clearly cheeky. I can't say much about this character, but his powers are slightly based on Natsu Dragneel of Fairy Tail fame, but...that is not completely the case. There is influence from other fics that inspired me, that make up parts of Ryu as both a character and his role in the story.

****Captain Celebrity **not an OC, but a character from the MHA spin-off manga MHA Vigilantes which I have recently been reading and I can confirm that we will be see more of the Vigilantes cast in the future. Like I said before, I always prefer using actually in-series characters rather than making up an OC to serve roles. Captain Celebrity was also like described in the text, but has changed his tune as the story continued.

That is it for now, _**Chapter XVI: Welcome to Heroing 101**_ will be out on 6/10/2019


	16. Welcome to Heroing 101

Damn I honestly surprised myself at being able to keep up with my upload schedule since I decided to say fuck it and decided to go for broke. 

I am almost done with_** XIX**_ but I fear that_** XX**_will be the chapter that will force me to return to an more traditional roughly 7-10 day schedule, since_** XVIII**_ is the final chapter that will realign us to back where we left off in the original version.

I honestly can't believe I made it this far; given setback from the original. But all the readers; especially from the original who stuck with me, I truly thank you all.

I recently uploaded _**Draco Knight Chapter II**_ which I do recommend reading. Again it's not required reading, but you will get to learn so much more and get clues about future events way before I foreshadow them here. The last chapter deals with Hisashi when he is thirteen years old.

Now with that out of the way. Let's begin.

* * *

**Reviews!**

_**patrickthenobleman: **_I honestly hope for the same and I do aim to use every bit of the MHA universe as humanly possible for this story. I will also confirm that I will be doing a chapter that is based on Two Heroes...but that wouldn't be for a long while, not to mention I plan to doing things way differently. Funny thing about Mirio he is already here! But I will have to admit now that unlike canon, Mirio never interned with Nighteye since Nighteye went into politics before Mirio even attended UA. So Mirio as been only slightly nerfed to due different experiences, but I don't believe it wouldn't cause him to be any less of a powerhouse in good time regardless.

_**inFamousSlyMonkey: **_Katsuki is a bro in this story, and yeah I think everyone could use a brother like Katsuki to a degree. Pray for Nighteye he needs it.

_**D3lph0xL0v3r: **_Katsuki is wary of Ryu no doubt about it. But we haven't actually heard Izuku's feelings about the guy just yet. Will Izuku defeat the Neocons? I'm not sure how that will happen, I mean do have a completely separate team of pros and politicians working on that. Ultimately I think how everything will ended up will leave almost everyone satisfied when I conclude that subplot.

_**Hankflamion18: **_I'm glad to have finally surpassed my original version in your eyes, but I will admit that this was also one of my goals to smooth out of the issues from my previous version.

_**ElephantBoy00: **_I like Papazuku and Mamachako hahaha! Sorry man can't forget about Ochako in this story. Lord help the souls if Ochako found out what happened to Eri or Katsuki if he found out too.

_**Moonstar31548:**_ It's Eraserhead, doing what Eraserhead does best trolling. I am trying to make Midnight despite her initial introduction to make her take the role of being 1-A's homeroom teacher seriously and to make her grow into the role as time continues.

* * *

**Recommendation**

_**Her Chocolate Eyes**_ By ShojiTentacle (AO3)

Good lord if you want Green Tea diabetes you go read this now. That is all I have to say.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

The OC Martin Allen belongs to Abovetail and a special thanks to you man for letting borrow Martin as a Cameo.

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight _**

**_Saga I: Dusk_**

**_Arc II: The Incident _**

**_Chapter XVI : Welcome to Heroing 101_**

* * *

**_"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first and the lesson afterward."_**

**_-Vernon Law_**

* * *

Eri was already fast asleep on the couch while her caretakers sat around the kitchen table planning out the steps to bring her to UA for the next week or so. Her evaluation was going to be important if she was going to start living out any kind of average life in society and with any luck she'll be able to start going to school soon. Inko could only teach her so much without fear of stepping on the toes of any school that would accept an early semester transfer student with no prior schooling history.

"So are we settled on how you'll be taking care of Eri at school?" Inko asked nervously.

"I think we do mom. Once I see how the remainder of how our core classes work tomorrow and have a chance to let our homeroom class know about Eri staying with us just so there are no surprises."

As Izuku spoke about informing their classmates about bringing Eri to UA was when Ochako realized something important, something that Izuku may have forgotten.

"Izuku!"

The two Midoriyas turned to her; given that Ochako had been mostly silent throughout most of the conversation.

"What? What is it?" Izuku asked concerned by Ochako's tone.

"What are we gonna do about that one boy ummm Tokoyami?" She asked with a worried face.

"What do you mean?" Izuku question with a puzzled expression thinking about the which classmate she was referring; learning seventeen new names and their faces would take a while.

"Remember what Eri said who she had been with before us?"

Izuku's eyes widened when he finally matched up the face with name.

_'Oh crap...The bird people.'_

"Is something wrong Izuku?" Inko asked now concerned herself.

"There is this boy in our class, he seems a bit odd but he doesn't seem like a bad guy either," Izuku started as he placed his hand under his chin clearly thinking carefully, "but there could be an issue with his face or more accurately his whole head, he literally has a bird head with a beak and feathers."

* * *

Unknown to them that same boy was beginning to sneeze up a storm at that very minute.

"Confound to these damnable allergies_ AH-CHOO_!"

* * *

"He might scare her, just by his appearance alone." Ochako added sadly worried about not just Eri, but also possibly offending their new classmate.

"We could let Eri know about him before taking her to UA." Izuku suggested thinking on the best way to make this as painless as possible for everyone.

"Maybe a picture could help?" Inko added to the surprise of both. "With permission of course. Something tells me that if this boy's appearance can be seen as fearsome as you make him out to be; he may already have experience with this. I'm pretty sure if you explain the situation and ask politely, I'm sure he will be understanding."

Inko thought about her previous experience with Gang Orca and his rather terrifying appearance that got him placed on the _**Top Ten Pro-Heroes that look like Villains**_ _**list***_ on more than one occasion.

"That's not a bad idea. I'll ask tomorrow and hopefully we shouldn't have too many issues just like when we take her outside." Izuku said hopefully.

Inko smiled, but her own thoughts turned to what Mitsuki as said to her earlier. She thought about address her new found concerns, but upon seeing the concern faces of the two teens worried about the snow haired child that slept on the couch nearby. Her didn't have the heart to do it now.

_'No, I think it will be better if I talk about that to them that after Eri's evaluation, I don't want to stress them out more than they are now.'_

"Well, I think that about covers it," Ochako said as she stretched her arms while seated. "I'm going back to my apartment tonight, there are few things I have take care of."

"Okay then, please be careful on your way back okay?" Inko said worried about the teen she had grown very fond of and seeing the time on the clock.

"Mom, I'm pretty sure she can take care of herself." Izuku interject with a small laugh. "You should see the flip she can pull on someone."

"First hand experience?" Inko said cocking an eye brow with some amusement etched on her face.

"Training!" Izuku added with a nervous laugh.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Izuku. Thank you for dinner Mrs. Midoriya." Ochako said as she got up from her seat and politely bowed to Inko, before walking over to the couch and giving Eri a quick kiss on the cheek and whispered.

"See you tomorrow after school Eri."

Izuku was already at the door opening it for Ochako.

"See you tomorrow then?

"Yep! Good night and take of Eri for me!"

"Right!"

After closing the door, Izuku made his way to the sleeping child and gently picked her up before saying good night to his mother and walking to his room, he placed her on to her own little bed that was tucked in the corner of his room. It was a nice colorful little addition to his normally drab and barren room. As he tucked in Eri, he breathed a heavy yawn, worn out from the day's excitement. Izuku decided to turn in early for the night, hoping tomorrow would be a more exciting day at UA.

* * *

Ochako sat in her bedroom talking with her parents. She finally told them truth about her recent development with Eri; thanks to the breakthrough in the investigation and getting the clearance to say it only to her parents with the promise that it would only be between them.

They in turn did raise a fair number of concerns about the issue, but since Ochako wasn't under any legal obligations and even had All Might's backing seemed to ease a number of concerns the two had about Eri. However as the two parents in question eased their concerns about this child Ochako had help take in did nothing to stop the sudden wave of teasing Ochako was now receiving from the two and her apparent ascension into being a mother for Eri.

"_Did ya finally get ov'r yer ol' knight hun?" _Her father had said over phone._ "Do I need to be worried bout this new boy in yer life?" _

"Daddy please! It-it's abit complicated!" Ochako managed with a red face; thankful that they weren't using a video chat.

"_That wasn't a no~" _he laughed before the phone was pulled away from him and her mother came on the line.

"_Alright alright, hun ya had yer fun. Now, Ochako sweetie just take yer time and don't be rushin any quicker than ya hav' already! One grandchild is enough for us already! So make sure ya protect yerself if ya wind up doin anything more serious."_

Both Ochako and her father in the background both did a spit take at the woman's joke.

"Ma! I swear ya can be worse than daddy!"

"_Hun don't be encourgin her!" _She heard her father say.

"_Hush! I'm not, just being realistic here! I mean ya remember back when we were in school and we..."_

"NOPE MA, I AM NOT HEARING THIS TODAY!"Ochako almost screamed out; completely done with her mother's antics and thankful that Inko wasn't the same way with Izuku. She could hear her father fluster in the background, while her mother continued to laugh at the chaos she caused.

"_Anyways Ochako, I'm glad that yer not alone out there. It was one thing I was so worried about sendin' ya ova there without us. And we're still so sorry that we couldn't come there to join ya." _

"It's okay Ma...I really do miss ya both, and I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't feel the same when I first came here, but thanks to the Midoriya's I feel like family here too ya know? I thought it would be hard fer a girl like me to make friends in the big city at the most famous hero school in the country. But they...they've made it so much easier fer me and I'm so thankful fer it," Ochako said with a smile and a warm feeling in her heart.

It had been a well kept hidden fear in her heart for her to attend UA alone and while she could call her family every night, it doesn't replace the loneliness of being in an apartment all by yourself when you have been used to being with your loving family.

Homesickness as it is often called, but when Izuku had offered his home with open arms before she returned to Musutafu and the time she had spent with the Midoriyas and Eri seemed to have prevented that from happening.

"_Glad to hear it hun, maybe we might be swinging by fer a visit soon!" _

"That would be nice ma, anyways I'm off to bed. Good night ma, tell daddy good night for me too please."

"_Alrighty hun, have good night and stay safe. Love ya Ochako."_

"Love ya too ma."

With that Ochako hung up the phone, plugged it to charge and settled into bed all while thinking about what the future had in store for her.

* * *

The next morning at UA everyone was set for the day as Nemuri walked in to begin homeroom.

"Good morning everyone," she said with a cheerful smile, excited to continue her new role as a homeroom teacher.

"Good Morning Miss Kayama," everyone sans Katsuki called out in unison.

"Excellent, now we have quite a bit to go over today including your first real heroics lesson with All Might."

The room burst with cheers at this news, it had been what everyone had been waiting for when they started at UA. Nemuri couldn't help but smile at her students' enthusiasm as it had been the same for her when she had attended UA years ago.

"Alright then settle down," Midnight said with a quick snap of a riding crop making everyone in the class instantly sit still wary of their homeroom teacher. "Now the first thing we to need to go over quickly is the ranking system."

At these words many seemed confused about what their teacher meant. Several of them had never heard of a ranking system at UA expect maybe for the sports festival. Nemuri could see several of the students with puzzled expressions and decided to fill them in.

"Ah, yes you see here at UA, since we are trying to train you all to become true Pros. UA's environment is set to be more inline with how civilians will affect your careers! When we go over certain training exercises with All Might, we record your actions and they get shown to the student body. The student body with the help of your liaison students will be assisting in your evaluations and placement on the general ranking board per year group."

While some of the students seemed to understand better once the term liaison student was mentioned, many like Tenya, Izuku, Shouto and Momo seemed to understand better, others like Denki who shot his hand up while still carrying a puzzled expression that others who still seemed to be having trouble with the topic carried on their faces.

"Yes Kaminari?" Nemuri called out.

"What are liaison students? I've never heard of anything like that."

"Ah, yes. I believe this is mostly because only UA and Shiketsu apply these mechanics to their curriculum. As you all know you have no electives as by default your "elective" is heroics, which is a core class for this course."

"However this is not the case for: the Support,General and Business course classes so with that being said every year group gets a selection of two students from every non-heroics course that are assigned as liaisons students with this serving as their _**'elective'**_. This means they can join us for certain events to serve special functions and in the case of the General Studies liaisons, they also tend to double as the first set of replacements for newly opened spots in the hero course," Nemuri answered.

Almost everyone seated flinched at this, UA already had replacements waiting in the wings if needed. Nemuri however continued on.

"Business course students can assist you in how can brand and market yourself in the future and in the case; the liaison for 1-A Ms. Mori," Rikidou face perked up at this, "has a rather fun feature to her quirk. Anything she cooks tends to give consumers a real boost! As for the Support course they will be in charge of repairing, upgrading and or replacing costumes and gear as needed. We will all get a chance to know our liaisons better in due time."

Many in the class seemed to understand the system this better now, Izuku has known the system for a very long time, after all it was here at UA that his father had not only fallen for his mother, but recruited her to be his marketing manager as well. It was also where he recruited one of the best support gear technicians in the business: Daigo Urashima. Both had been the liaisons for his father class in business and support respectively.

"Together they will be instrumental in how you are graded by the rest of the student body and how you will be ranked, which can reflect your standing out in life once you actually go pro. Take these ranking seriously especially if you have plans to make into the big leagues and run your own agency someday. Pro-Heroes looking to scout look at these rankings with a lot of care since you will also be competing with 1-B for the top five spots."

"Are we ranked right now?" asked Katsuki.

"Yes, some of you are already ranked based on the entrance exam. You Mr. Bakugou are currently ranked two overall among the first years at this moment, but it can change very quickly if you are not careful."

Kastuki clicked his tongue, if that was the case. It meant Izuku was currently ranked first. The grin grew on his face as he remembered what Izuku had said to him months ago. He needed to push harder now.

"Okay that settles that for now. I'll be leaving you here for a few minutes to get a few things and to give you a chance for all of you to know each other better as teamwork and cooperation will be key for you all."

As the class began to warm up to one another, Izuku realized this was his chance to have the class know about Eri and her visit to UA. Izuku stood up and got in front of Nemuri before she had a chance to leave and he quickly whispered his request.

Nemuri granted his request having been briefed about it earlier this morning with the rest of the first year staff and decided to stick around a moment longer in case anyone had questions.

"Uh..." Izuku began unsure how exactly to start, while the silence from the rest of the class who's attention was squarely now on Izuku's shoulders. "You see...uhh"

It dawned on Ochako what Izuku was about to do and stood up as well and walked up next to him followed shortly by Katsuki who had learned about the plan earlier this morning on the way to school. Having his two friends next to him did help Izuku relax his nerves and allowed him to regain his voice.

"So...before school started, Ochako and I got into a rather strange situation and to make a long story short my family took in a young girl that we found in the streets." Knowing he needed to keep it as vague as possible, thankfully no one seemed to be needlessly curious about the situation.

Ryu's eyebrows went up at this.

_'This is an unexpected development...the briefing mentioned nothing about this...'_

"And basically we've been able to take care of her and UA has agreed to assist by allowing her to take her quirk evaluation here."

"It was recommended and approved by the principal due to the unknown nature of her quirk and having Mr. Aizawa on standby to stop her in case anything goes wrong, but means she will be here attending school with me. And only just for a few days! And all I simply ask is for your cooperation and understanding since she is very shy and easily scared, she'll be here until her evaluation is done please." Izuku finished before bowing instinctively.

A lot of students seemed confused by this, but thankfully Tenya spoke up on the matter.

"It makes sense to me, I have heard of some doctors doing this with children that have quirks that could be activated by accident easily, I know that it wouldn't be the first time that UA or another hero school that has a member of staff with a suppression quirk, this is meant to ease the concerns of the public when children could start displaying certain quirks that could be powerful and easy to lose control of."

It seemed to do the trick, as his words were absorbed by everyone else and seemed welcoming to the idea.

Tooru suddenly spoke up with her shirt sleeve being raised up; signaling that she had her hand up. "Is she cute?"

"She's adorable." Ochako answered with a cheerful smile. "I have a picture of her here on my phone."

A number of students and Nemuri went proceeded to exclaim as they saw the picture of a shy looking Eri who sat between the two teens that had Ochako pulled up on her phone.

_"Awww" _

"That's a cute lil' family." The pink skinned Mina Ashido teased seeing the picture, making the two teens blush furiously, seeing the two unable to speak allowed Katsuki to continue now that the class was leveled out.

"Long story short, she'll be here for a few days and then she'll be able to go to her own school when its done."

"And what is your role in this Bakugou?" Momo asked, seeing how Izuku and Ochako were involved, but not seeing how Katsuki fell into the mix. He in turn responded with a slightly terrifying grin.

_**"I'm the fun uncle."**_

* * *

The rest of the day went by rather smoothly. As Izuku, Ochako and Katsuki sat eating lunch and though it was only the second day, things did seem to settle with people finding their own little friend groups already. Ryu, Denki and Minoru were chatting up in a table in one of the corners. While Hanta, Mashirao, and Eijirou seemed to have set themselves in a group.

The majority of the girls sans Ochako had a table to themselves, while Rikidou was eating lunch with a blonde who had been helping out Lunch Rush serve out students with a group of business course students. Fumikage was nowhere to be seen, much to the disappointment of Izuku as he was trying to catch the bird boy before school ended.

However to the surprise to the trio, was when they were asked to be joined by Tenya and Shouto.

"I hope you do not mind us joining you?" Tenya said as he and Shouto sat down at their table. Katsuki simply grunted in response as he ate, while Izuku and Ochako however completely welcomed the two with open arms.

"Of course, you're more than welcomed to join us." Izuku said cheerfully while Ochako nodded her face current full of the tasty white rice.

"Thank you," Tenya answered gratefully before taking the first bite of his lunch.

The cafeteria was the perfect setting for the new classmates to get to know one another better, rather than in the confines of their classroom. It was always far easier to get to know someone while breaking bread and maybe soon enough taking down foes together.

Denki regaled Ryu and Mineta on some of the latest anime of the season, with the other two adding their own input here and there.

"I'm telling you guys! The remake is actually pretty killer!" Denki exclaimed going over a recent remake of a popular ninja anime.

"Oh come on! The animation can be so shit compare some of the stuff in the common era!" Ryu said exhaustively adding a comment about bad CGI.

"Well depends on what your watching, since some things never change heheheh." Minoru laughed to himself as lewd memories ran though his head.

"But they improved the story and got rid some of the other filler crap the held the original back!"

"But that was the part of charm of the old days!"

As the table with most of the girls chatted about their lives before coming to UA, Tsuyu showing off a few photos of her friends and family.

"Ooooh..Who's that hunk of a blond in that picture Tsu?" Mina asked, seeing the picture of Tsuyu with a large blond foreign boy with blue eyes and a large shit eating grin plastered on his face as he stood between Tsuyu and a red-haired girl with a snake-like face.

"Ribbit? Renchan*?" Tsuyu asked.

"Is that his name? He looks foreign to me." Mina retorted, wondering now if the boy was mixed race.

"Oh no, ribbit, that's just my nickname for him. Ribbit, his actual name is Martin Allen* he's an American who used live on a U.S. base not to far from me, we were classmates in middle school and we're still friends today ribbit. He's a bit silly and kind of dumb but he means pretty well. His family was something else though ribbit." She giggled remembering Martin's parents. "I used have a bit of a crush on him, ribbit, but he moved back to the U.S. before I could ever really say anything."

"Aww." Mina breathed out now a bit disappointed she had always been a massive sucker for a good romance.

"Maybe it was for the best though?" Kashiko suggested before taking another bite of her meal.

"Ribbit...what do you mean?"

"I mean we're still in school, so wouldn't a relationship interfere with our studies?"

"It is possible." Momo stated as she calmly ate her food.

"Aww come on guys couldn't be that bad." Toru piped up.

"I am not saying it is bad or good...I guess it would really just depends on the couple. I mean, I guess a good couple could possibly workout." She said while eyeing Rikidou and Jou. "While maybe others...should definitely wait." She added looking at the immature looking trio at the opposite corner.

"Nah, you just wait until you fall for someone. I mean look at those two." Mina said pointing at the other table, making every girl turning to where Ochako and Izuku sat. "That just a ship waiting to sail. And they basically already have a daughter come on! Place your bets now, because it's only a matter of time before they're official, I promise you."

* * *

When lunched ended, Izuku felt a hand fall on his shoulder, he turned to see Shouto who had remained pretty silent while Tenya had done most of the talking for them.

"Can I help you Todoroki?" Izuku asked puzzled by the quiet boy's action.

"Come with me for a moment, it will be quick."He whispered motioning with his head to a nearby corner.

Izuku stood there unsure but decided to follow him. Tenya, Ochako and Katsuki had already gone ahead as their next class was heroics with All Might.

"Okay, what you do you need?" Izuku asked calmly as they made it to the secluded spot.

Shouto turned around before looking at him right in the eyes and said the words that made Izuku's heart felt like it stopped from fear.

"I know who you are Midoriya, and I know who your father was," He said in a monotone voice.

"W-ww-hat do you mean?" Izuku began to stammer.

"You are Draco Knight's son right. Am I wrong?"

Izuku was doing everything he could to remain calm, but he could already feel like he was going to faint on the spot, his breathing quickly became rapid. His memories swirling of how everything changed after his father's funeral, how most people treated him. People who knew the truth.

**MONSTER!**

**FREAK! **

**DRAGON? MORE LIKE DEMON! **

**YOU SURE YOU SHOULD BE A HERO? LOOK WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOUR DAD!**

The laughs, the bullying, the physical attacks everything was coming back to himself all at once.

_**'No...please...NO...'**_

"Midoriya!" Shouto's voice called to him snapping him out of his dark thoughts.

Izuku yelped causing him to intake a sharp breath.

"I am sorry, I should have worded this better." Shouto coughed as he realized his mistake after seeing the color drain from Izuku's face."I know who you are and so does Tenya...and I want you to know that you have nothing to fear from the both of us."

Izuku tried to respond but in his rush ended up choking on his own spit; proceeding to cough instead.

"I still need to work on how I speak to people..." Shouto said to himself with a small frown as Izuku was trying getting himself put back together. "I understand why you are hiding your linage and your quirk by the looks of it, and I do not blame you for doing so. I just want you to know that...you have friends in us. Friends who understand your situation, we were fans of your father too after all."

It was a massive mix of emotions for Izuku, from reliving all his fears to knowing that despite everything that had said about his father...he still had fans which made him want to cry out with Izuku still couldn't help but be on edge, he didn't want to seem suspicious of Shouto's intentions hoping to see of the good in him, but he wanted to play it safe for now until he could be sure.

"I'm sorry about my reaction." Was all Izuku could say in the end.

Shouto simply nodded and motioned to begin their return to class. Izuku stood there for one more moment, as his nerves finally returned to normal, when realized something else important, how did Shouto and Tenya know? It would have to be something to ask later as he needed to get to class.

* * *

_**"I AM HERE, COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A HERO!"**_ All Might exclaimed as the door slid open and him appearing in his sliver age costume to the roaring joy and applause of almost everyone in the room.

"I hope you are all ready for your first round of hero basic training, I what like to call Heroing 101! But first I got something for all of you and, I think it's something you've all been waiting for!" All Might said pulling a small remote out and pushing a button that made wall in the back of the classroom opened up with a number of suitcases marked from one to twenty. The class instantly cheered as they realized what they were.

"NO WAY!"

"IS THAT OUR SUITS?!"

All Might laughed. "Correct boys and girls! Now get suited up and meet me at the control room station Alpha of training ground Gamma! It's the gray building with a big **"A" **in front of it. "

Almost everyone scrambled to get their hero costumes as several of them had been waiting for this moment for years. When Izuku collected his and headed to the locker room his thoughts turn to around a week ago when he got the paperwork for the clothing allowance;when Ryuko decided to take him alone on a special little trip.

* * *

"_Kyu, where are we going?" Izuku asked as he sat in his cousin's car. _

"_To my agency, now that you're about to start at UA, there is something important you need to see." She answered while keeping her eyes on the road. Ryuko's agency used to belong to Sir Nighteye before he left the Hero scene to join the National Diet. She had leg up compared to many of her peers and fellow sidekicks formerly of __**The**__**Drake's Den**__. _

_Her agency was named __**The Dragon's Nest**__. When they arrived Ryuko was quick to move Izuku inside hoping to avoid any media that would occasionally hide at key points in public spaces hoping for snapshots or hounding for questions. Thankfully nothing like that happened and they entered without issue. Izuku had visited before, but Ryuko today guided him to the basement, where he hadn't ever been in before._

"_Your father was more like an Uncle to me than a cousin Izuku. He helped me out in my career and I have always wanted to pay him back. Which is why I'm here to finally give you this." She said as they walked down the staircase. _

_In the basement was a large collection of Draco Knight merchandise that floored Izuku thinking for a moment that Ryuko about to give him all of his, but Ryuko instead pointed toward a large wardrobe at the end of the room. Izuku looked at his cousin first; receiving a nod from her before walking toward the wardrobe while still amazed at the collection Ryuko had. As he stood before the large wooden piece, he slowly opened it and what was inside left Izuku completely speechless. _

_It was a costume._

"_It was supposed to be the costume of a squire." Ryuko said quietly. _

"_**When you are ready for you UA, I'll deem you worthy of being named my squire."**_

_His father's words echoed in his head. As he struggled to keep the tears coming from his eyes. All those years of training had been leading up to this moment. The design had surprised him, it wasn't the classic armor costume of his father. Instead it appeared upon closer inspection be more like a dark green full body suit with high density plastic bracers for his hands, arms, and shins. It also had what appeared to a small breastplate made from the same material. It all had holes in places where his spikes used to come out before taking in One for All. _

"_You can submit it to the school and it will be modified to fit you. It was your father who designed that prototype, but I personally added the next piece." Ryuko said with a sad smile. Izuku saw it is wasn't like his father mask. Instead it was a cowl with his father's emblem displayed on the back. "I made a version without the emblem. I was always hoping maybe one day...you can make one of your own someday."_

_That was the moment Izuku lost it as he suddenly turned around and ran up to his cousin, wrapping her in the biggest hug he could as the tears flowed out his eyes as no words could ever match everything he wanted to say just how grateful he was to her at that moment. _

_Ryuko in turn returned his hug; tears flowing down her face. Knowing how much this would have meant for Hisashi, if he would have been able to be here for his son. And while she was no true replacement for Hisashi and couldn't always able to be there to guide her cousin through his darkest times, he still made it and she was so proud of him for doing so and would continue to support her cousin when possible._

* * *

As Izuku proudly wore his costume, he saw that the support team added a few extra features.

The bracers now had an extra lining of metal to make metal knuckles, the breastplate included a neck guard, the sandals he submitted also contained a metal lining to protect his toes outside of his shifted state, the cloth belt was remade with a sturdy faux leather belt with pouches for storage,with one pouch containing a small PDA inside of it and finally a metal respirator that tried to replicate All Might's smile. He looked around amazing how everyone else looked in their costumes.

"Hey Izuku, love your costume." Izuku heard Ochako say he turned around to see her and was instantly grateful for his hood. As he was simply unprepared to see Ochako in that skin tight black and pink costume that made Izuku face blush hard, because just like Yuu's costume; it left very little to the imagination. And there was a tiny part of him in the back of his mind that wasn't complaining.

Recovering quickly however he noticed something he hadn't before seeing Ochako's outfit, her equipment; it was definitely something else, she carried what appeared to be a small rounded riot shield on her back along with what appeared to be collapsible combat baton. Izuku had already been on the receiving blows of her martial arts so he would hate to see what she could do with that.

As Izuku looked around discovering that everyone who didn't have some sort of direct offensive ability seemed to have some form of non-lethal weaponry.***

All Might stood in front of a large console of the control room.

"Excellent you all look so cool!" He exclaimed giving everyone a big thumbs up as everyone entered inside. "Now we got a lot to go through today for the special operation! Heroes versus Villains!"

Behind All Might one of the screens, suddenly went static before a new feed displaying a nervous looking female student long red hair and eyes popping up on the screen.

"_Hello viewers! This Kiyoko Mikami from the UA Business Course Journalism Division reporting alive from UA Site Gamma!"_ She started with her eyes clearly reading from a script off screen.

There was a collective gasp from the students. All Mighty grinned this was their briefing on the task at hand.

"_There as been a report of two students from the General Studies department being held hostage by a group of notorious villains!"_

The screen cut displaying the two "missing" students from General Studies: The first was a male with indigo hair that reminded them of Eraserhead with his name displayed under his picture: _**Hitoshi Shinsou.**_ The second was a female with gray hair and noticeably full lips with the name: _**Reiko Yanagi**_ displayed.

Kiyoko reappeared with a dramatic flair continuing her report clearly feeling more confident.

"_The villains are the notorious __**Big five! **__But fear not! A group of heroes from the "A" Agency has been dispatched to deal with the villains. How will these heroes fair? Take tuned to find out!"_ She finished with a wink before the broadcast cut off.

"Your mission my young heroes-in-training is to the save the hostages from these dastardly villains! However there some rules in place! As you know Mr. Aizawa assessed you on your first day here, but what you didn't know is that the assessment served another function!"

"You have been assigned into four teams of five!" He said with the display of the biggest screen behind revealing their teams.

* * *

**_**Team One **_**

**_**Izuku Midoriya**_**

**_**Minoru Mineta**_**

**_**Tsuyu Asui**_**

**_**Fumikage Tokoyami**_**

**_**Tenya Iida**_**

* * *

**_**Team Two**_**

**_**Katsuki Bakugou**_**

**_**Eijirou Kirishima**_**

**_**Mina Ashido**_**

**_**Hanta Sero**_**

**_**Denki Kaminari**_**

* * *

**_**Team Three **_**

**_**Ochako Uraraka**_**

**_**Ryu Kasei**_**

**_**Kashiko Sekigai**_**

**_**Yuga Aoyama**_**

**_**Rikidou Satou**_**

* * *

**_**Team Four**_**

__**Momo Yaoyorozu**__

__**Kyouka Jirou**__

__**Tooru Hagakure**__

**_**Mashiraou Ojirou**_**

**_**Shouto Todoroki **_**

* * *

"These teams will be in place until next semester, where things may get mixed around depending in the results produced in this semester. Now while the public objective is clear, there is a hidden objective you must also be wary of. The Villains have a nuclear bomb hidden somewhere in the city."

"Why wasn't that announced in the broadcast?" Denki asked voice trembling.

"If it was trying to replicate real news it could be one or two things; One: They don't want to cause a panic or Two: They don't know that the villains have the bomb." Momo answered promptly.

"Excellent reasoning Ms. Yaoyorozu!" All Might praised, "now while this is a collaborate effort among the teams, you can see there are three objectives and yet we have four teams."

"Meaning one of the teams is set to fail." Tenya observed.

"I don't think so Iida." Izuku spoke up. "All Might what about these "villains" can one of the objectives be their capture?"

All Might gave a hearty laugh.

"Indeed young Midoriya! Capturing a villain can give the team member who captured them earn a victory credit toward their own team. _**However**_ these credits will only count with if the main objective is accomplished, which is either saving all the hostages and securing the bomb or capturing all five villains which will collectively complete both objectives at once."

Everyone seemed relieved that there was a chance for all of the teams to pass. All Might however wasn't finished.

"However from the teams only eight people total can be deployed in the field at once. In addition you must have at least two person among you to be assigned as a _**"Medic"**_ and an _**"Operator"**_ respectively at all times." All Might continued explaining. While the display changed to demonstrate the two positions.

"The Medic can pick up fallen teammates who have been eliminated and do not count as deployed hero, however they cannot engage villains until they are relieved from that task or if they are attacked while moving a fallen ally."

Everyone that their full attention on All Might some of them prepping several questions for the man. Especially one question seemed to be shared by everyone.

**_This exercise like this seemed way too advanced for a starting class. _**

"The Operator is the team taskmaster who sends out orders and serveries the battlefield, deploying reinforcements when needed. You will be given fifteen minutes to decide and ten minutes to prepare, once the initial roles have been decided. Any additional rules can be found in the PDA's you all received along with your costumes. Now are there any questions before we begin?"

In an instant All Might began receiving questions left and right from his students, ranging from how much damage could they cause and many more that left the old pro sweating.

When they were finished, All Might sent a signal alerting the "Villains" inside site gamma that the exercise was about to begin.

* * *

Within a five-story yellow building in the heart of Site Gamma, the team of "villains" had received the signal that their task in this game was about to begin. They were gathered in front of a display their leader sitting with a small grin on his face.

His team each commenting what was on their minds.

"Oho! I can't wait to see how these first years handle this operation!" A bubbly voice wondered aloud to his right.

"Ugh...It's still seemed way too much for the first years to go though if you ask me.." A bored voice said to his left.

"Togata, what are your orders?" Said the tallest of the five with a mouth that appeared from one of his arms.

"I call playing decoy!" Said the only foreigner among their team.

The blond boy with beady blue eyes moved his hand up to quiet down his team. As he began giving his orders for their initial plan.

"Tentacole, I want you head to the roof tops nearby their base and keep an eye on the heroes," The tall boy with mouth pod nodded as he left to get into position.

"Blink, you'll get your wish and get to play decoy. Assess their battle strength. If the operator they choose is smart, they'll know how and why the teams are divided in to their set specialties and send out the strike force and maybe a few scouts to start off."

"Yes!" The brown hair boy cheered and headed down to street level as he slid on his bone white mask of comedy.

"Suneater you guard hostage one take him to one of the buildings on the right side of the street, Nejire-Chan you take hostage two and do the same from the opposite side."

Finally he stood up and finished up with "As for me, I'll be here with the bomb. " A wide smile proudly displayed on his face.

"Let the games begin."

* * *

**Author's notes**

_**Top Ten Heroes that look like Villains list*: **_Yes this is a confirmed thing in canon, I have no doubt that Fumikage may possibly make it on this list later in life.

_**Renchan/ Martin Allen**:**_ An OC created by Abovetail to star in his fic _**Semper Fast**_ which did help inspire this story to a degree, albeit his fic is OC-centered but is one of the few OC stories that I believe use OC's correctly and is an easy favorite of mine.

_**Non-lethal weaponry***: **_This seriously should have been a standard for everyone who does not have an offensive based quirk. It doesn't go far the normal to include something like a baton or metal knuckles to give even those with less physical strength a better chance at combat.

That is all for now guys.

_**Chapter XVII: A Trial by Fire Part 1**_ will be out on 6/13/2019 seeya then and as always

With lots of love.

**-X**


	17. A Trial by Fire Part 1

I honestly have little to say to day except I hope you guys enjoy the revamped battle trial. So once **_Chapter XIX_** is uploaded, we will be completely caught up to the original.

Anyway for you new readers who never read the original and what has changed from both versions (Honestly it wasn't that much that changed, I just got better at writing what I wanted to do)

**_XX_** is almost done, but I'm still working on a few key moments are giving a tiny bit of trouble, but I'll keep you guys posted as normal.

* * *

**Reviews!**

_**Jetstar77**_: Thanks a lot for the heads up! I thought I had missed something! I updated the notes to include that missing bit. As for suit upgrades, as side from the weapons, these are still the Gen-One suits. However I do have some fun additions lined up when we hit later generations of almost everyone's suits.

_**James Brockwell:**_ Well I am always happy to see that people really seem to like my story, despite being more complex than it has any right to be, but hey it's how I operate.

_**Ooobserver: **_The Dynamic with Shouto given everything that is different about his origins and how he will not only interact with Izuku, but with everyone is something I really look forward to writing in particular his relationship with Tenya once we get a more familiar arc. The Overhaul Arc...oh...do I have plans for the Overhaul arc.

_**D3lph0xL0v3r: **_Blink is Alexander Springfield's Hero codename and was referenced in _**Chapter XIII**_ and had his own short story in _**Chapter VIII**_.

_**JaxTheKnight2319: **_I do not plan on canceling anytime soon. I'm having a lot of fun writing this, plus this is almost a test for myself that I can actually finish a very large long-term story project, since I am working on my own original fantasy series.

_**Patrickthenobleman:**_ I hope I do not disappoint, however I have to say that it won't just be Izuku's or Mirio's leadership skills put to the test in this exam. I have mentioned that I do want other characters to have their moments after all. (Much like Empress Kallen in your fic, god I loved that arc.)

_**Hankflamion18: **_Get some rest, but I'm glad to see that this version seems to be living up to your expectations.

And to the user who prefers to remain unnamed: Happy Birthday and thanks for sharing this fic around every Sunday for the last few weeks. It really does mean a lot to me, hope you enjoy your birthday and this chapter.

* * *

There as actually been a bunch of stuff I've been reading lately, but I'm still trying to find a fair way to how to rank them and given them justice with a proper recommendation. Plus a recommendation from me needs to match certain criteria for me to recommend.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_**

**_**Saga I: Dusk**_**

**_**Arc II: The Incident**_**

**_**Chapter XVII: A Trial by fire. Part 1**_**

* * *

**_**"A good leader takes a bit more than his fair share of blame, a little less than his share of credit." **_**

**_**-Arnold H. Glasow**_**

* * *

Yuu was sitting in the living room of her aunt's house channel surfing on the T.V. while scrolling on her phone for anything interesting. Taking the day off to recover from a string of incidents that happened last week, it was nothing major save when a billboard landed on her back when a prankster gone villain decided that flattening civilians would be great for debut. For now she was simply taking it easy. She kept scrolling down her phone feed mostly through social media, she stopped when she found an interesting news report on the apparent return of the _Hero-Killer Stain_.

"Ah damn it. He's back and with another victim."

The report however added a strange twist as she read, Stain normally attacked Pros without any indication, but now he had apparently left a message on the guy's corpse.

"_**False Heroes are scum, but false Heroes who prey on weak are worse than scum."**_

"Pro-Hero..._Marx_." She read aloud the victim's hero identity.

She knew about the guy, but at one point she knew that the man had once had several cases of sexual assault levied against him once upon a time, but it was never proven due to the majority of the cases being dropped due to either lack of evidence or the accuser recanting and dropping their stories.

She had the misfortune of meeting him once, at a charity for sick children a few weeks ago. He was definitely had an air of being some kind of sleazebag hitting on several women at a fucking charity for sick kids. He was a funny guy sure, but he had nothing on Ms. Joke in terms of cases and popularity.

It was definitely a mix bag for Yuu to think on. Marx was innocent until proven guilty* in the eyes of the law, but many saw him as a criminal who used the title Hero to escape justice and it looks like Stain ultimately did too.

As a Pro-Hero and a possible target she didn't like Stain, but she could understand a bit of his philosophy on Heroes. However in her opinion is seemed like Stain _**only saw things in **___**Black and White**___**.**_ Rather than gray like most people in life are, as very few people in the world could be called genuinely be called purely good or evil.

* * *

"Are you sure you got this Uraraka?" Kashiko asked nervously as Ochako and Rikidou finished up tying the rope around her waist, all while still getting used to the feeling of her blue-gray skintight suit.

"I'm like..eighty percent sure I got this." Ochako joked while trying to encourage her classmate.

"I don't like the fact that there is a twenty percent chance this can go wrong..." Kashiko frowned before taking a look down at the street below them.

"I'm just gonna keep you floating while making sure you stay within bounds of the building, while Satou here makes sure you don't just float away." Ochako said casually.

"It was a pretty good loophole that Midoriya found and, with the gear you have; you should be able to see where everything is right?" Rikidou added as he popped a quick sugar pill to get ready to begin his part of the operation.

"Yeah..." Kashiko sighed resigning to herself to fate. "Just give me a moment." She added before taking a deep breath. She wasn't scared of heights, but it was reasonable to be wary when one basically agrees to do reverse bungee jumping. "Phew...Okay I'm ready."

"Have a good trip!" Ochako chirped before pressing her fingers on Kashiko's arms, with a tiny flash of pink light. Kashiko could instantly feel weightless and kicked off the roof with Rikidou holding on to the rope letting it slack bit by bit to let Kashiko gain altitude slowly.

Kashiko had to admit when she reached the end of the rope; the view was stunning from where she was, being able to see most of Site Gamma with ease. Now she had to play her part. Using the visor the support department made for her; combined with charting quirk, her eyes began glow as they started to scan around the area; the visor zooming, adjusting and tagging anything of note.

"Hello there." She said with a small sly smile as she spotted what appeared to be one of the "villains" that was up in the roof top. She fiddled with the wrist mounted gear and started sending some of the data she had collected back to the team below. "Looks like Midoriya was right on the money."

"_Thanks for the data Sekigai. With this I got a good plan forming up, let me know if anything else changes." _Izuku's voice spoke up from her ear piece. _"I'm sending over a team to the roof top and I'll leave it to you to direct them from there." _

"Understood Midoriya."

* * *

All Might had left his students to join the special observation room for teachers where Eraserhead was currently waiting in. To say that he was displeased with the exercise that Shouta had set up was an understatement. It wasn't just that this was advanced Hero work way beyond what was expected for a first year class...for the first heroics class of the year none the less!

However there was something else that bothered him...the team formations, Shouta must have known. Team One its set up and the troubles it could cause..He needed to speak with the man. When he had learned about Shouta's prior history as a homeroom teacher, All Might suspected that Nezu knew that big shake ups were to be expected under his leadership of the department but this was too far in his eyes.

"Aizawa." All Might said as he entered the room, popping back into his skinny form. Shouta Aizawa sat observing the class, villains and the site on the various monitors while wearing that ridiculous sleeping bag of his.

"All Might." He said casually as though nothing was wrong.

"You have a lot of nerve in designing this practice and the creation of this semester's teams!"

"Not the "teams" since you are only referring to one team in particular..._Team One_."

"So you did do it on purpose...Aizawa that is just cruel."

"This exercise is meant to break down some of the issues I can already foresee with this year group. Overconfidence, recklessness and overachievers that are bound to be full of themselves, I am hoping to quell some those issues early with a seemingly impossible exercise, and as for the formation of Team One, if the students in question; particularly those who lost family during the Draco Knight incident on the team discover the truth about Midoriya and cannot find themselves to work together afterward they shouldn't be here to become heroes."

All Might looked at his fellow educator, things have changed since he had attended UA himself and this was his first time as an educator and therefore Eraserhead's junior in this case. In the end All Might resigned himself to see if Shouta's method proves fruitful. This trial was designed so in the end Hero will almost surely suffer a failure no matter what happens.

"At least tell me once this is done, that we will being doing more basic hero coursework that is suitable for their year group."

"We will be, this test is to simply make sure that they understand where they are now and what they can become _**if**_ and when they become third years. _Heh_, but looks like they have made up their minds and the first formation is off to a good start." Aizawa finished glancing up on the monitor with a small grin on his face. "They are proving clever."

All Might looked up and he couldn't help but smile when he saw who was on the operator's desk.

_'It is time to prove yourself my young successor.'_

* * *

Katsuki and three of his teammates were beginning the walk toward their primary target. If Izuku was really able to correctly deduce which building had the bomb based on logic and the gathered intelligence thanks to the combined scouting efforts of Ochako and Kashiko, then they already had a solid leg up on how to proceed.

Katsuki knew he had made the right choice in nominating Izuku for the operator's chair, yet he still couldn't help but laugh when he saw the looks on almost everyone's face save Ochako when Izuku pulled out his quirk notebook that only helped his case in convincing everyone that he was the right man for the job.

While this makeshift strike force was heading toward the main objective, four others where being sent out to possibly find where the hostages and the villain's scout where located. Though at the very least they did have a solid idea where they all were.

Denki had been sent to go after the roof-top scout, while a duo composed of Tooru and Ryu was sent out to rescue where one of the hostages was suspected to be; Kyouka meanwhile would be busy scouting for the other hostage. Yet even with all of this so far in their favor Katsuki couldn't help but be on edge.

It had been all too easy to set-up and yet the trial itself still seemed excessive for a first class, while he loved the thrill of a huge challenge being thrown his way, he also knew to also think about the lesson as a whole for the class. His instincts kept telling him there was something more to this trial, some thing they aren't seeing.

"Hey Bakugou you alright there buddy?" Eijirou spoke up trying to fill the silence and get some word from their self-appointed leader of the strike force. He was met with a quick grunt followed by.

"Quiet down and pay attention, Tape arms what do you got on the map?" Katsuki snapped out.

Hanta who had his PDA device out serving at the team's resident map man sighed. "Nothing important yet, we still got at least a good six-hundred meters before we get there."

Unknown to the team, they were currently being spied on by the villain's scout from one of the roof tops.

"Blink, we got a team inbound heading right toward Lemillion's location." Mezou Shouji aka "Tentacole" said to his earpiece.

"_Distance?" _His teammate responded quietly.

"Just above half a click."

"_Understood, got eyes on the one with the map?"_

"The tall one with the black and white costume."

"_Thanks Tentacole, decoy inbound, I'll be taking him out first."_

Tentacole was about to confirm when one of his ear pods set behind could hear someone climbing the side of the building he was standing on; a possible an attempt to ambush him from behind.

_'Clever.' _He thought to himself.

"Understood, be careful Blink as I seem to have company as well."

Tentacole slid out and hid near the staircase to the roof top as he saw a shock of yellow hair coming up the side of the roof.

* * *

Izuku sat in the operator's chair with Momo serving his back-up operator, Momo who had been one of the two primary candidates for the job until Katsuki came into the picture and broke down why Izuku should man the chair.

She had her doubts until she saw and was immediately impressed by Izuku's quick change in demeanor once he sat down and began thinking of a plan combined with some brilliant discoveries of finding and using some of the loop holes within the rules to try and use at least one person from each team out on the field.

Like using Shouto to make an ice bridge for the second team without having to leave the bounds of the building meant they were always using more than the allotted eight at a time, all while still playing by the rules. And yet Izuku was still completely open to input which made him easy to work with, something that Momo could appreciate with ease, like when she suggested that Kyouka's quirk would be the best to scout buildings from the outside.

All while Katsuki and the remainder of his team left from the ground level to catch attention of the enemy team. Serving as the team's medic was Tenya while everyone else was on standby, but helped out by watching the extra monitors that featured the featured footage from cameras through site Gamma as well as the cameras that had been strapped to each of their teammates on the field giving a first person perspective from each that can be viewed from.

* * *

Izuku was still mulling over the details, but his expression spoke volumes to Momo that something was off and she could feel it as well. This exam was indeed odd to first years to tackle, even for elite students that was to be expected from UA; something about this test just didn't add up in her head.

"Damn it!" She heard Izuku shout out making her jump.

She could see Izuku rapidly switch off the coms.

"Iida! Stand by! Get ready to move out and take Mineta with you."

"Right!" Tenya called out with Minoru following up by saying

"Wait what?!"

"Wait what happened?" Momo said upon collecting herself.

"Looks like the villains finally appeared. It is either a decoy or first line of defense either way Sero is down." Izuku said said firmly.

"Why Mineta?" Momo asked given the short boy's demeanor.

"If the villain is a decoy, it will be better to capture him. Sero was the team's capture specialist, Mineta and his quirk would be the next best bet without using an ace like Todoroki, plus we may need him to make another ice bridge from our rooftop in case one of the others gets taken down."

* * *

**_Few minutes prior._**

Katsuki and company continued to their destination. Eijirou continued to chat away to build up team bonding because it was "manly". Getting laughs from from Mina and Hanta even Katsuki couldn't help but of have a shadow of a smirk on his face.

He would have deal with them now, but it would still be on his terms, as this was his squad.

"Hey what was that?" Katsuki could her Mina say making him freeze as flash a blue flash from the distance.

"What was what Ashi-hmm!" Sero asked before being violently knocked flat on his back dropping the PDA.

As a blur had flew right past most of the team and slammed into Hanta's head and out to the back of one of other buildings. The three were only momentarily stunned by what just happened before they sprang into action; Mina quickly began checking over Hanta while Eijirou and Katsuki covered the two of them, Eijirou hardening his body and Katsuki popping small explosions on his hands in a threatening manner while building up his body heat to sweat more.

"EYES OPEN!" Katsuki ordered out, looking for the culprit.

"Oho! I got him good!" They all heard a mocking voice say. From the corner of the nearest build behind where Hanta was laying. A figure appeared, not much taller than Katsuki, wearing a gray white hooded robe and plain bone white mask of comedy.

"Son of bitch..." Katsuki growled at his opponent's audacity.

"_Careful Kacchan! He most likely has a speed based quirk." _They heard Izuku's voice say in their ear pieces.

"Hey Midori, Sero is out cold." Mina whispered back checking over Hanta's vitals.

"_Understood I'm sending Iida to pick him up and drop off Mineta."_

"The kid with grapes on his head?!" Katsuki questioned.

"Uh grapes on who's head?" The white robed "villain" asked puzzled by the wording.

Eijirou however had a different plan. Thinking his opponent was distracted, the red head lunged at his opponent, only for the "villain" to blur out his sight disappearing with laugh, before reappearing on the other side of the street.

"Aha! Good job, but I won't be caught off guard that easily! The name's Blink! Afraid you're not good enough to catch me!" He continued his mocking of the redhead.

"Speak for yourself!" Katsuki roared again blasting toward his foe,however Blink suddenly disappeared again.

"WOOO! We got a spicy one here folks HAHAHAHA!" Blink japed as he reappeared right above Katsuki trying to strike down at the blond's head with a swift ax kick.

Katsuki managed to block with his right arm; the gauntlet being able to absorb most of the impact while he prepped his left hand for a blast.

"Easy Boom boy!" Blink called out once seeing Katsuki's move coming and blurred to the ground directly under him on all fours aiming a kick to his stomach.

"I've gotta ya covered Bakugou!" Mina yelled out as she came running to Katsuki's aid flinging acid as their opponent; managing to get some on him.

"Oh crap!" Blink yelled out being forced to roll back as Mina's acid could be heard sizzling on his costume. "Ow ow! _SHIT! That stings!_"

Blink was quickly forced to remove his ruined robe and his mask; thankful that the acid didn't eat further much that it did, though it did leave him with some mild skin burns.

Blink didn't have much of costume without his rode and mask on, as he all he wore under it was a simple gray body suit with black cloth rings around all his joints and armored padding for his chest, forearms and shins while wearing heavy duty gray boots.

His face was sharp and was clearly a foreigner, a bit on the plain side; save for a small beauty mark under the left of his lip. He had short brown hair and very bright blue eyes that seemed to glow. His face sported a nervous grin as he slowly began to edge his way to the corner making sure all the first years remained within his line of sight.

"_Kacchan! I think I got something!" _Izuku's voice suddenly spoke out to the team as they could hear pages of his notebook flipping.

"Yeah what is it?"

"_From last year's sport festival. He lost in the top eight, but made a good impression on the crowd, getting him promoted to the Hero Course: Alexander Springfield! He's from the US!"_

"To hell with that tell me what you got on his quirk!"

"_From what I got, he able to jump distances that is within his eye sight, I can't tell you the exact range but it can't be too far." _

"Ah damn it." They heard Alex say, "Back-up already?"

The team could hear a rumble and what sounded like an jet engine speeding towards them.

"WAH SLOW DOWN IIDA PLEASE! I AM GONNA PEE MYSELF!" They could hear the pleas of Minoru as he hung for dear life on Tenya's armor as he ran towards the team.

"We have arrived! I am here to recover Sero and drop off Mineta!" Tenya said as he stopped right next to the unconscious Hanta much to the stunned silence of the everyone else, save Minoru who had to almost literally had peal himself off of Tenya; holding on to his chest like the poor boy was about to have a heart attack.

"Nnenennnever aga-a-a-ain...Mid-dori-i-ya..." Minoru swore as took in deep breaths to try calm himself.

"Thank you for caring for Sero!" Tenya continued as he picked up the limb body of Hanta completely ignoring the breathless boy. "I must return now and make sure Sero gets proper treatment" And with that Tenya suddenly turned heel and began his run back to the base, leaving everyone simply standing there.

"Well...that was something." Eijirou said with a small smirk.

"Yeah, at least Sero should be good." Mina sighed with some relief.

"FOCUS GODDAMN IT! WE GOT THIS ASSHOLE TO BE-" Katsuki roared turning to his opponent, only to see that he was now gone._"MOTHER FUCKER!" _

Alex had turned to hiding around one of corners of the buildings nearby, he knew was far more vulnerable without his mask. From an increased chance of getting rouge debris in his eyes to making his quirk's tell much more obvious.

He knew that this now required a change in his tactics, playing pure decoy and only going on the offense when their guard was down and yet even then it was still risky even with first years who have proven more adept that originally thought.

Alex sighed as his thoughts turned to the rest of his teammates. "Alright...time for round goddamn two."

* * *

Nejire sat nearly by with her hostage while having a completely one-sided conversation which mostly amounted to several questions about Reiko herself, while the hostage was mentally pleaded for the torture to end.

Coming down in her building was a Tooru and Ryu making their way in as quietly as possible. Kyouka had successfully discovered the hostage in this building; letting the duo go here, while she went ahead and scouted for the second hostage.

Izuku had a devised a simple plan for them, Ryu would launch the initial attack to try and lure the villain out of the room, while Tooru depending on the situation would either go for a sneak attack or extract the hostage, if Ryu gotten their attention successfully. When the two arrived to the door where they could clearly hear Nejire chatting away with Reiko. Ryu motioned to Tooru to get on the opposite side of the door to break in.

"Okay Hagakure, you ready?" Ryu whispered to the invisible girl.

"Yep no problem Kasei. I just got to quickly do this." She said as she took off the remainder of her costume. "Don't peek please~!"

"Uhhh...rrright." Ryu sighed shaking his head, taking a deep breath ready to fire blast his opponent.

* * *

Tamaki was bored as he sat with his hostage sharing a number of small snacks with the tied up brain washer. He still felt that this exercise was really excessive for a bunch of first years to even tryout, but he knew that there had to be some reason for it. Especially with Eraserhead being in charge of the exercise and he knew better than to question Eraserhead with anything lest you suffer his wrath.

As Tamaki continued to think while he munched on his jerky snacks to refresh his quirk, not knowing that close by was Kyouka Jirou closing in on his location. Her quirk making it easy to find them; quickly noting the building, floor and door the two where in and knew that she need to play the waiting game now.

"Hey boss, I found the other hostage." She whispered to her ear-piece.

"_Good work Jirou. Kasei and Hagakure have confirmed their targets as well, stand by we will be sending back up your way soon." _She heard the voice of Momo say, Kyouka surprised she didn't hear Izuku speak to her instead, however Momo was backup to this merry band for a reason.

"Right on." She whispered while keeping an earjack affixed to the wall.

* * *

The rest of the class who remained on standby and not working on the loop holes for their class, were watching the various feeds of their classmates on the field with great anticipation. Some envious of that they were not out there themselves first. Others nervous on when they would be called up or if they would even be needed to be called up at all.

For Tenya Iida however who had just managed to return from the field and getting Hanta to a proper medical cot with robots that would take him to Recovery Girl, was more than a bit frustrated with being placed in his current position as the team's _**"Medic"**_, but he understood why he was placed in this vital role.

As Mei would often say _**"Teni is basically a walking tank with an F1 Engine"**_

His armor inspired by his family line of heroes gave him a solid defense, combined with his build and speed; he could get people to and from danger with little effort, and while finding an additional purpose of also carrying teammates to the site, as Izuku discovered that a teammate is no longer considered be out on the field, if they have been rendered unconscious; allowing for a replacement to be sent out once they are confirmed to be out of play.

Tenya however felt like he could do more, with the legacy he had to live up too; he had a thirst to prove himself. Overshadowed by his brother and his in-laws, Tenya wished nothing more to be an equal to those he felt were much greater than him. And yet here now he realized there was far more to the competition than simply his family, but his classmates as well.

Looking at Izuku and Momo who were both still in the operator's panel; he could see some of the things others lacked.

Tensei had the charms and the wit; despite his version of the Engine quirk not being the strongest made due.

While on the opposite end stood Shouto with none of the traditional charm, but was still intelligent and had raw power in spades. Then you have those like Katsuki who had his own unique charm, while clearly showing is prowess as both a fighter and leader as seen on the monitors as he and his team continued to fight Alex.

Tenya could almost feel the gap growing and he hated it. He hated feeling this way knowing it was un-heroic to feel this kind of envy and yet he knew that everyone always had a part to play in the grand scheme of things; something his brother had always tried to instill in him.

There are the parts we want to play and then, there are the parts one must play even if we hate it, because that is the thing about life, she deals the cards and all you can do is choose how to play them. Tenya would serve as the medic for now and hopefully would be able to do something more substantial soon.

* * *

Denki was on the roof top confused on where his target was supposed to be.

He was hoping to show off his skills to some of the cute girls in his class while mildly geeking out over his wrist mounted hookshot that the support team had made for him. It was simple to use and operated on his powers, add the sweet collapsible baton that could double as a stun rod when charged up with his quirk and he felt almost unstoppable.

He looked around; baton on hand just in case, before tapping on his ear piece when he couldn't find anyone.

"Heya Midorya, where is this guy supposed to be?"

"_Hold on sec..." _Izuku answered. There was a brief pause with a few beeps before a new voice came to Denki's ears.

"_Kaminari it's Sekigai."_

Denki grinned a bit, remembering Kashiko's costume his imagination getting the better of him since she happened to be speaking in a low voice, not listening to her warning. This was proving unfortunate for the blond teen as his opponent was starting to make his way silently in position to ambush him.

"_Kaminari? Kaminari? Are you listening to me? Kaminari?!"_

"Uh...yeah totally copied that!" Denki said being stirred out his thoughts of his attractive classmate.

"_Above you!"_

"Wait what? Gah!" Denki questioned before being tackled and held down by Tentacole, who managed pull out Denki's stun rod from his hand and made to the wrist mounted hookshot face away from both of them for their own safety.

"You should always pay close attention my young friend and always keep an _**eye**_ out on your surroundings." Tentacole said quietly while making one of his arm pods form an extra eye as he pined Denki to the ground.

"Ha..." Denki groaned out trying to laugh at the rather bad pun.

* * *

Izuku was scanning every single screen as he jolted down additional minute quirk notes from his observations, as well as muttering to himself of every last adjustment to his plans he needed to do in real time. While Momo continued communications and added her own comments to Izuku when prompted.

"Midoriya! Kasei and Hagakure have breached the first hostage room!"

"And Kaminari seems to be down as well, but I think he might still be conscious though." Izuku answered before speaking to the mic. "Kaminari, if you can hear me, do not respond. I know that you can get out of this, but try and keep the scout distracted at least until we can capture the decoy that is still keeping Kacchan's team on their toes." He said finishing up before slumping back into his seat with a pondering expression on his face.

"What is our next move Midoriya?" Momo asked with interest on what the greenette had next up his sleeve.

Izuku paused for one moment as he closed his eyes, despite the feeling of being rushed Izuku trying was to think very carefully on what his next move should be, everything they have seen so far, while not perfect; they were still doing good.

And there lay the problem. It was too easy...way too easy, especially for something this advanced...it just felt completely wrong to him.

"Have the roof top team come down except for Todoroki...and Yaoyorozou?"

"Yes Midoriya?"

"We're switching places, I want to you to be the operator now please."

"Oh? Not that I'm not ready to lead myself, however I have to ask...why?"

"I have these notes here for you including a few back up plans. I just have this feeling..that something is going to happen and if it does I might have to go out there. Either way I know I'd be leaving the chair in good hands."

Momo nodded with confidence, appreciating Izuku's kind comments towards her. "So you do plan to head out yourself then."

Izuku answered without skipping a beat. "If something really bad happens, then yes."

"Understood if that is the case," Momo stood up the same time as Izuku and switched seats. Flipping the communications, Momo took a breath before called out.

"This is Momo Yaoyorozu taking over as the Operator for this mission. Midoriya will now be my back-up operator as well as being listed on standby. Roof top team except for Todoroki please come down. Asui, Tokoyami and Uraraka prepare to head out to your respective targets that you were briefed with once you get the signal. Sekigai come down to the Operator's room. Iida prepare for another recovery soon."

She said with an air full of confidence and authority getting everyone's attention, everyone could feel the charge from her voice.

"RIGHT!"

* * *

"Now, this is an interesting development," Shouta said before pulling another snack pouch from his sleeping bag. All Might nodded seeing the change in leadership handled adjusting as the situation called for it.

"I must admit Aizawa. They are doing better than I expected."

Shouta stirred a bit within the sleeping bag before facing All Might with a terrifying grin.

"You say that now All Might, but the moment when one of the big is five is taken down is the moment when things will escalate to the next level."

"Aizawa...Please do not smile like that again...You are scaring me." All Might deadpanned.

* * *

"THIS WAY!" Ryu shouted as he helped pull Tooru of the way of one Nejire's blasts.

"HAHA, You can't keep running~!" They heard Nejire call out to them.

Ryu and Tooru knew that fighting a senior student would be hard, but despite her very cheery and almost child-like demeanor, Nejire had proven to be a terrifying force of nature. The moment Ryu kicked the door down to breach the room Nejire was in, she had been ready blasting Ryu with a full blast of her wave motion quirk, it was Tooru's quick save that stopped Ryu from being blasted out of one of the windows. Unfortunately this also gave Tooru's position away as well as Nejire began slowly walking towards them firing at the two.

Now the duo were running as hard as they could in the empty maze-like building to little avail as Nejire seemed to be right on top of the duo at almost every turn, even managing to hit Tooru with a lucky blast. Perhaps the most damning thing that Nejire managed to do that while attacking was also mildly getting on their nerves as she began a stream of never ending questions that she asked even a while attacking.

It ranged from basic quirk stuff like:

"Fire Breath how fun! Do you fight for your friends and never give up?" She said with a giggle, that Ryu could swear was meant to mock him.

Her comments also extended to Tooru with stuff like.

"So can you turn off your invisibility? Do you wear make up? Can be hard to do stuff without being able to see your limbs?"

The two managed to break eye sight with Nejire making rapid corner turns in the hallway, before diving into one of the empty rooms.

A disheveled Ryu was almost completely covered in dust with his costume; a plain jet black jump suit and black boots with a flame motif and a large red fire-proof folding scarf had tears everywhere. Both were breathing heavily and as silently as possible in an effort to avoid detection.

"Oh? Where did you run off to~?" They heard her say with a mixture of bubbly with malice that caused Ryu to reevaluate all the various fears in his life at the moment. He turned to face his invisible companion.

"Hey...Hagakure you okay?" Ryu whispered, being able to make out a thin outline of Tooru in midair thanks to all the dust she was covered in.

"I want to say yes, but I'm hurting in a lot of places right now...It's also kind of cold too." She managed to answer quietly with a shiver.

Ryu wanted to called for back up, but was worried that doing so could catch Nejire's attention. As he thought of what he could do next, he heard something else that caught his attention. A strange but familiar sound.

**Drip drip **

Ryu looked around trying to find the source of the noise before turning back to Tooru and spotting a dark patch on the ground around the area Tooru sat.

"Hagakure are you bleeding?" Ryu whispered with narrow eyes unsure if he was seeing things correctly.

"Yeah a bit Kasei..."

"That doesn't seem like _**"a bit"**_" He hissed with annoyance.

"Sorry..." Tooru said sadly.

_'Ah shit.' _Ryu thought with a sigh. Spy or not, he didn't mean to sound like a prick.

"It's okay, it can't be helped. But there is one bit of good news..." Ryu just realized.

"What's that?"

"She is still looking for us, meaning the hostage is alone."

"Oh your right!"

"Shhh!"

"Ooh."

The two went silent for a moment, they could hear the footsteps of Nejire followed by a loud and random blast getting closer; Nejire was clearly checking every room, her laughter echoing down the hallways, sending shivers down the spines of both students once again.

Ryu took off his scarf, took a breath and blasted it with flames from his mouth, warming it up before handing it to Tooru.

"You can warm up and clean yourself off for a bit and then run toward to hostage...I'll go and take her on." Ryu said with a straight face.

"You know that is pretty dumb right?" Tooru said bemused as she cleaned herself off with the scarf, appreciating the gesture and warmth from it. _'It smells a bit like cinnamon.'_

"Yep, I am most likely gonna lose...hard," Ryu answered with a nervous grin. "But that isn't the important part, she knows that you're invisible and it won't be long before she finds out that we split. So it's best if I simply tried to hold out as long as possible, and try to buy you as much time as possible for you to get to the hostage."

Tooru looked at the nervous boy, before nodding in agreement.

"...So was that a yes or are you still thinking about it?" Ryu asked unsure about her sudden silence, unable to see her silent answer.

* * *

Mirio was having a lot of fun from his own observations of this new first year class. He was genuinely delighted to see how good they were performing despite the lack of experience, but having a strong leader and a solid plan with maybe an dash or two of over-confidence here and there really could do wonders for morale.

Still the leader of the Big Five couldn't help but feel just a tad bit guilty knowing the harsh lesson in reality this class was about to face. He could already foresee one outcome, as he could tell that Alex would be reaching his limit soon and when that happened, the "mission" would have to escalate to the next level and will continue to escalate with any further losses the villains incurred or if any of the hostages were successfully recovered. Mirio also knew he couldn't let his team have all the fun, soon he will move to Arm bomb before jumping into the fray himself.

* * *

Alex was completely exhausted and was pushing the very limits of his abilities as he continued to his attempts to dodge the nearly constant assault the group he was fighting was dishing out. His eyes burned as his vision was starting beginning to blur thanks to over using his quirk so much in such a short time.

The first years had really proving to be something else.

"DIE!" Katsuki roared as Alex was forced to dodge another blast. Katsuki had proven to be one hell of a tactical field commander; with a wrath to rival Satan. The crazy punk had even used a high power blast from one of his gauntlets against him earlier and while he had successfully dodged it physically, it mentally shook Alex to the bone when he saw the aftermath on the street and walls behind him.

"I've got you now!" Eijirou yelled out as he tried to land a successful strike upon his foreign senior. Only for Alex to counter his charge and direct him to a nearby wall; avoiding the need to strike him after learning his lesson the first time.

"Damn it!" The red boy screamed as tried to pull his arm out of the wall he was currently stuck in.

It was after one poor attempt to strike at the redhead that had taught Alex that hitting the redhead directly was both an unwise and very painful course of action. He had hoped that the hardening quirk had reached its limit when the redhead had clearly been winded. A fact that the foreigner was quickly proven wrong leaving his right hand fractured at the bare minimum thanks to his misjudgment of the boy's stamina.

"I'm coming!" Mina piped up as she skillfully slid into the picture with her acid, moving to help Eijirou out of his jam. Out of all of his opponents. Mina was the one that Alex feared the most, her acid attacks that made any attempt at close quarters combat against her neigh impossible for him especially with her teammates ready to counter and back her up, when he had tried to isolate her.

"I've got you covered!" Mineta yelped out as he kept throwing more sticky balls. The new kid had proven to be way more trouble than Alex had originally thought, he could tell that the balls where clearly meant to be used in his capture and while easy to dodge, dodging left the balls laying the area thick with them to reduce Alex's movement speed and safe jump spots; slowly forcing him to get closer and more daring with his escapes and dodges.

Yet Alex couldn't retreat, the exercise called for do-or-die resistance. Something Alex had always been ready to obliged when needed.

_'Welp I think it's time for a suicide strike.' _

Alex thought knowing he only had two or three goods jumps left in him after dodging Katsuki's last blast.

"If I'm going down, then I'll have to take some of you with me!" Alex declared as he eyes began to glow brighter, making Katsuki tense up as Alex just disappeared.

Only to reappear right in front of the blond, catching the boy completely off guard by the sudden change in tactic. Alex had used the speed and momentum from his quirk to perform a long sweeping kick at Katsuki's head with everything he had, Katsuki managed to block it again, but didn't know that Alex's boots had hidden steel toe tips.

While Alex now knew that the gauntlets had something to do with that huge explosion from earlier had aimed hard and successfully broke through his gauntlet letting a spark do the rest as a blast engulfed Katsuki in a flash. Alex didn't waste anytime as his special move wouldn't last long.

He blinked again this time toward Eijirou who had just been freed by Mina, forced her behind him and re-hardened up trying to feint a punch hoping it would force his senior to back off. Instead Alex took the punch full force all while using the same momentum to grab and twist Eijirou's arm and swing him overhead roaring out.

"_When punches and kicks won't work on an opponent,___**that is when you need to start grappling them instead!**___**"**_ Alex roared out as he swung the redhead over himself and right on top of Mina who at the movement was in the middle of rushing in to try and save her teammate knocking her out instantly as she hit the ground with the redhead on top of her dazed from the onslaught he had just been dealt with.

Alex let go of Eijirou, quickly taking a step back from the crumbled duo. Turning to look at Minoru who was all that was left of the team.

Minoru dropped the last sticky ball he had having been stunned from having to witness of what his upperclassman seemed to be capable of. Despite appearing to be on the ropes, Alex had managed to completely turn the tables on them and was now afraid of being next.

"Phew...that was tiring.."Alex breathed out taking a moment to catch his breath, he could take care of Mineta easily now that he was alone. That would be Alex's greatest mistake here.

"I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU SHITHEAD!" Katsuki's voice roared out, blasting forward from the smoke. Despite the pain he was in thanks to his bloody left hand that had once held the gauntlet, he now continued his offensive having used the smoke to wait for an opening, shooting one blast nearly at point blank range with his right hand catching Alex completely off guard.

"GAH!...HOW ARE STILL STANDING _DAMNIT?!_" Alex yelled out in shock, as he was blasted back while trying to ready his quirk to make his escape. His nose wrinkling from the sharp smell of cinnamon that made his blood-shot eyes sting even worse.

Alex quickly looked up trying to target one of the buildings nearby to make his escape from the battle.

Seeing the glow in his eyes and now knowing that was his opponent's tell, Katsuki knew what his foe was about to do and made one last gamble knowing this was going to make his damaged hand even worse, it was trick he was saving for an emergency, but knowing Alex's powers were based on his eyesight, he knew this would work as he saw Eijirou slowly getting up.

It had to work.

"STUN GRENADE!" Katsuki roared moving his hands apart with a bright flash suddenly appearing with a loud _**BOOM**_.

"WHAT THE..._FUUUUCCCCKKKK_!" Alex roared in pain, as tears finally ran down his face as the flash of light blinded him, forcing him to take a step back and get his one of his feet get caught by one of Minoru's sticky balls.

_'DAMN!'_

"SHIT HAIR NOW! FUCK HIM UP!" He heard Katsuki yell out.

**"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"**

Alex heard Eijirou's bloodcurdling roar combined with the sounds of the redhead running as hard as he could; ready to give his upperclassman hell.

What happened next would make every man who witnessed the scene, recoil instinctively wanting to protect what many of them would consider to be the perhaps the most important part of themselves. Alex who between being blinded and hearing Eijirou gunning towards him. Alex could almost feel the primal need to piss himself out fear as it was easy to picture himself as some ancient hunter-gather from the stone age about to mauled by a giant bear.

In his great need to avoid both the incoming pain and wishing to avoid an embarrassing accident. Alex took a gamble of trying to pull off an emergency jump while still blinded. Even if he couldn't lock on to anything he could still buy himself some critical seconds to make for an escape. As it activated however, Alex already had forgotten about the sticky ball that was now stuck to his foot that slowed his ascent just enough for the redhead to reach him with his fist.

Unfortunately by the Eijirou realized where he was about to strike it was far too late.

For Alex all of life and time seemed to freeze as he felt the fist strike, the sheer amount of pain and agony that began being etched on his face as the camera continued to roll. It had been enough to force the quirk to cancel the remaining jump, making the foreign boy fall from midair and into crumple on the ground, writhing in pain as his hands instinctively went protect the spot.

but the sheer agony that was etched on his face made said everything to everyone watching; his eyes rolled back, face contorting. Yuga had crossed himself and spoke a silent prayer for his upperclassman as he bore witness to the scene via the monitor.

"My balls..._why do__ they hurt so much?_" It was all he could say with a high-pitched voice as teared rolled down his face.

Back in both monitoring room, every man couldn't help but feel sorry for the low blow that had been dealt to the foreign boy. Yuga said a small prayer in French, while almost everyone else could almost feel the pain themselves, especially those who had already experience trauma in that region before.

Back in the combat zone, Eijirou had immediately dropped to his knees and began begging his upperclassman forgiveness for such an unmanly display; tears streaming down his on face out of shame.

_"I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THAT MAN!" _

_"JUST KILL ME..." __Alex begged in response. _

Katsuki however instead took the chance to force one of Alex's arms so he could cuff him; successfully "capturing" him as he did.

Suddenly the intercoms came alive with the announcement.

"_**The Villain Blink has been captured!"**_

Katsuki turned to look at what remained of his team; Minoru's head was bloody from using so many balls, Mina was out cold and Eijirou was clearly exhausted and worn out from the fight. Of course there was himself a bloody and singed mess. He wanted to continue but knew that there were still four other villains active and if they were anything like this guy, they were all in for hell.

No, they had to retreat and let the others pick up the slack.

"Shitty Hair, leave the foreigner and grab Raccoon Eyes to carry her back to base, all of us are heading back." Katsuki ordered with a growl while motioning with his head.

* * *

Shouta looked on with the same smile from earlier. Alexander Springfield was easily the weakest of the big five when you add the fact that he was technically a year behind in experience compared to the rest. Now that he was down, the second phase of the exam can finally begin and the reason why the man's code name for this exercise was called

_A Trial by Fire. __Could finally be revealed. _

"Togata, it's time to begin phase two." Shouta quietly radioed

"Righto Sir!" Mirio said with a smile before letting the rest of his team know the plan.

"It's my turn to play. Nejire-chan, Suneater, Tentacole it's time for part two."

* * *

**Author's Notes**

*Innocent Until Proven Guilty: In theory this is how the rule of law is suppose to work in the US. In Japan however there is some questioning on this philosophy as I managed to read up on the subject regarding a damning over 99% conviction rate in the Japan criminal legal system. Based on everything I read, while in theory you are innocent until proven guilty, in practice you are basically fighting to prove your innocence. Check out of the articles available online, I found the topic very interesting.

That is all for now.  
_**Part 2**_ will be released on 6/16/2019

As always with lots of love.

**-X**


	18. A Trial by Fire Part 2

Want to know something funny? The original file for this got corrupted alongside_** Chapter XIX.**_..I managed to force myself to redo all of the edits and reworking in a matter of _**hours.**_ As the original reworking took me_** DAYS**_ to finish.

Unfortunately I basically burned myself out doing this, so I cannot confirm that I will have _**Chapter XIX **_done in three days, but I will do my very best to try and make, but I will not be able to promise it to make it to the goal of 6/19/2019 this time sorry about that guys.

I managed to gain a sizable surge in favorites/follows from the last chapter, which made me pretty shocked hahaha! I guess the last chapter proved popular and I hope to continue to meet your expectations for my story.

* * *

_**Reviews! ** _

_**patrickthenobleman: **_Lelouch no doubt as he would have no qualms about killing people, but if Izuku got him in a straight fight avoiding geass, I think Izuku could pull off a victory if it was just the two of them.

**_Jmm1_**: Well I'm happy you seemed to enjoy the story, I do try my best to make changes organic rather then simply letting things happen with no explanation,and as much as I love Eri and I would die to protect that smile, I haven't been much of a fan on how other fics who introduce Eri early but ignore Overhaul like it's no big deal, stuff like this is what I want to avoid, but need to development organic story reasons to have things happen as they do.

_**ElephantBoy00: **_The battle trials always served to assess our future heroes to be it in canon or other fics, and while this is no different, given the nature of both everyone's different relationships and that Eraserhead is in charge of planning these things, I wanted to throw everyone to the wolves to break them down to build them back up stronger.

_**JaxTheKnight2319: **_Shouji seemed like an obvious choice to be the one I was going to age up to be a third year alongside the Big three given that he seems the most mature out of the everyone while still having his moments. Remember though it's not just Izuku's leadership skills that we will be exploring as while he is the main character, he isn't the only one I will be focusing on. When I do a few extra class chapters in the future everyone will get a chance to shine better. Also being compared to _**Black Fuego Rio**_ and _**AnimeFan229110**_ is something I can't even wrap my head around.

_**Ooobserver: **_Oh yeah that is right, you started following the story around this time with the original version, I do hope **_Part 2_** will be enjoyable.

_**inFamousSlyMonkey:**_I like using the quotes to get across a particular theme or idea behind the chapter, sometimes it is for the chapter as a whole and other times it could refer to a scene or even a specific character. I'm glad that someone seemed to like this idea too.

_**Moonstar31548:** _Eraserhead despite the guys general deposition, means well in the end and while this battle trial will leave its mark on our heroes, I think they will be all the stronger for it.

* * *

Now here is an interesting fic that I really enjoy.

_**Dial and Error by ionica01**_ it's a Todomomo fic, but there are plenty of other side ships that many of my readers should like.

It is one of the few Chatfics on FFN, but I first read it on AO3. It is a quirkless AU, but it is written so well and the characters are very enjoyable in this setting. Do give this fic a try, if you want to go for something just a tiny bit different from the norm.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold:The Fafnir Knight**_

_** Saga I: Dusk**_

_** Arc II: The Incident**_

_** Chapter XVIII: A Trial by Fire Part 2**_

* * *

"Ah damn it Katsu! Where did you put it?" Yuu grumbled to herself as she searched Katsuki's room thoroughly. It had become a common thing for both cousins to borrow stuff from each other, so often that they also tended to forget they had borrowed and returned what they had borrowed from each other.

"FOUND IT!" She exclaimed finding her lost volume of her favorite romance manga series in a box in Katsuki's closet; hiding away should Izuku visit as Katsuki would never ever admit this great secret to him. A secret only Yuu and the rest of the Bakugou family knew, his darkest secret. Katsuki Bakugou was a complete sucker for romance.

It was even tradition in the Bakugou household, to have a romantic movie night about once a month; twice if they were lucky. It was one of the few times you can say that the entire Bakugou household was ever truly quiet and at peace and it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for Katsuki to have to brawl with his own eyes to keep the tears from coming out, and if the movie turned out to be really good and even need a hug from someone in the family.

_Needless to say if Katsuki was ever confronted with this fact, he would deny it flat out and would most likely follow it up by threatening your wellbeing and would continue to deny it, until his dying day. _

She sat on his bed for a moment, double checking for any damage to her volume, knowing from experience that Katsuki's passion could lead to an explosive reaction. Given the one case when Katsuki read the latest volume of **_Between The __Realms _**and the moment he realized his favorite ship had sunk; the poor volume ended up becoming nothing more than a pile of ash and broken dreams. Mind you that it was Yuu's OTP that sailed that day in opposition to Katsuki's.

Happy to find no trace of damage done to her copy, she slowly got up when her phone began to ring. The ringtone she had set let her know instantly who she was calling, answering while making her way back into the living room.

"Hey, Ryuko. What's up?" Yuu sighed out as she plopped down back into the living room couch to relax.

"_It's a slow day, and I wanted to check up on you after I heard you got injured yesterday." _Ryuko chirped over the phone cheerfully. Yuu smiled, Ryuko had been a big help to her when she went independent, leaving the Dragon's Nest as a sidekick to be a mainline Pro in her own right.

"I'm fine. Just resting up for a bit." Yuu answered before remembering an interesting piece of gossip she had heard on her last patrol. A smirk mischievous smirk grew on her face knowing that Ryuko should more an enough time on her hand for a small chat.

"Hey...Ryuko."

"_Yes, Yuu?"_

"You finally planning on breaking Katsu's little heart, when he finds out about you and Edgeshot?"

Yuu's smirk grew into a grin as she heard Ryuko spit out her drink and started coughing violently over the phone.

_'Bingo...'  
_

"_WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT?!" _Ryuko exclaimed.

"Oho! So it _is_ true!"

"_...I may have a date set up with him. And Kacchan's crush on mewill end sooner or later, it's not like I'd never be with him...I'd rather not go to prison and whatnot..."_

"Woohoo, a dragon going after a ninja. You know how to pick them." Yuu laughed.

"_We're not official or anything, just testing the waters a bit you know?" _Ryuko answered nervously.

"Does your family know?"

"_Only Inko and you now." _

"Okay, okay I get it. I'll keep quiet...only for the sake of my little deary Katsu's heart." Yuu mocked with childish voice.

"_I swear you're more of a Bakugou than you lead on Yuu." _Ryuko deadpanned.

* * *

"Are you sure that we should have just left him there?" Eijirou asked sadly as he carried an unconscious Mina on his back. Still riddled with the guilt for his hand in possibly ending his upperclassman's family line with a single punch. The makeshift team of four were heading back to their base as quickly as they could following the announcement of Alex's capture.

"You heard the bastard, _Ballbuster_." Katsuki snapped. Feeling angrier than he should have been at the moment as though someone was mocking him. He held his injured hand; nursing it as best he could with what first-aid knowledge he had. "He wanted us to leave him there, it's not like he'll want to move much anyway."

The new nickname made Eijirou flinch with a fresh wave of guilt remembering all of Alex's English swear words that could make any sailor blush that and a possible curse to the Kirishima family line that would haunt them for generations. _-__Not that Eijirou would blame the guy-_

He swore to himself that he would continue to beg forgiveness from his upperclassman when he got the chance as he considered it to be completely unmanly to leave things as they where.

"Why do I have to retreat?" Minoru complained loud annoyed about the situation while trying to clean off more blood that kept flowing from his scalp.

"Easy Grapeboy." Katsuki growled. "We're pretty fucked up as we are now, and that was from only one of the five bastards we have to deal with, better we back out now and let the other extras that aren't fucked up take over."

* * *

Reiko was bored, Nejire had left her alone to go after her liaison classmates. She knew this was part of the deal signing up as a liaison student with Hitoshi, but did they really need to make them wear these silly costumes? A lab coat for her and the cheap fake cop costume for Hitoshi. It was just a black shirt with a cheap plastic badge for goodness sake!

Her role in the briefing was to be a _**"Bomb Scientist"**_ and Hitoshi's was the _**"Bomb-Squad Cop."**_ Add the fact that as nice as "Nejire-Chan" was, her numerous questions could probably drive anyone into insanity. Great for mentally breaking villains, not great for bored juniors trying to make their own way into the Hero course. As she was still deep in thought, the door into the room she was in, suddenly and slowly began to open seemingly by itself, snapping Reiko out of her thoughts and placing all her attention at the door.

"Hello?" Reiko called out unsure if it was someone or if the door was just faulty.

"Oh hi there! I'm-" The voice of Tooru suddenly spoke up, having the unintentional side-effect of scaring Reiko so badly that her scream would echo throughout the building.

* * *

Back at the base, everyone else continued their observations and waited for Katsuki's team to arrive, some chatted quietly commenting on what they saw, while others like Ochako had been busy speaking with Fumikage and Tsuyu with her phone out.

"Thanks again for helping out Tokoyami," Ochako said gratefully as she looked over the pictures she had just taken of the avian boy.

"It was of no concern Uraraka. It would not have been the first time I would had to have deal with a situation like this," Fumikage answered calmly with the tinist hint of a smile,"I...have accidentally frightened many children due to my visage."

"Ribbit...you're actually really nice, aren't you Tokoyami?" Tsuyu asked with a slightly hint of a laugh.

Fumikage looked away as if the comment made him embarrassed. "Revelry in the dark..."

"I'll take that as a "_Yes" _ribbit.." Tsuyu answered with a giggle, much to Ochako's bemusement.

As the trio of Momo, Kashiko, and Izuku were monitoring the situation at the Operator's station, the feed suddenly cut off of the main central monitor screen being disrupted and began displaying nothing but static.

"Wait what's going on?!" Izuku asked standing up while taking to bring the signal back from the console.

"I don't know!" Momo responded trying to check over her side of the console, when a loud echoing laughter rang out throughout the entirely of site Gamma for everyone to hear.

"_MUWHAHHAHAHAHA!"_

The feed returned; revealing Mirio Togata leader of the big five...wearing a fake black pointed mustache over his costume visor that seemed to instantly cut the intensity the threatening laughter significantly. Everyone by watching the monitors seemed confused by their upperclassman's appearance.

While Shouta still in the observation room couldn't help but facepalm himself while watching one of his most promising senior students in the whole of UA do these kind of antics.

"_You have done well my dear heroes!"_ Mirio exclaimed dramatically his body completely animated with each word.

Tenya exclaimed "The dastardly boss has finally appeared!" Completely bought in by Mirio's overboard acting.

"_However, it seems like we have been far too lenient in letting you scrape on by."_ Mirio's tone suddenly turned dark._"Allow me to fix that. Suneater would you kindly give us a __**demonstration**__?"_

For a few moments it was completely silent in site Gamma, save for anyone who was still on the move, while those at the control panel waited with baited breath unsure what exactly was to come of this demonstration.

Among the souls out in the field, Kyouka who was about to ask the operator for an update, when she noticed that there was movement in room that she was keeping tabs in.

_'What is going on?' _

She thought to herself as she replaced her jacks into a better position against the wall before the question answered itself. The game completely changed when she heard a small pop and the automated announcement called out.

"_**A hostage has been killed by the villains!" **_

Tamaki was standing over his "hostage" with a small remote like device that simply made a simple popping sound to replicate a firearm when activated. Hitoshi now sat there with an annoyed look on his face; given that he was now dead without being to do anything. However he was at least grateful that his thankless role in this exercise was now over. Tamaki quickly began to untie the young brain washer who simply got up silently to make his way back to the break room alone using the door on the opposite side of the room.

With Hitoshi out of the picture Tamaki pulled back the white hood of his costume; revealing a pair of a rabbit ears that protruded from the top of his head thanks in part to his rabbit jerky snacks, and a few other surprises he had in store for the Hero he could now hear behind the wall next to the door to his right hand side. Kyouka had been left completely stunned and wide-eyed as it was the hostage she was suppose to keep an eye on that she had failed to save. If this had been the real deal, someone's death would have now been on her hands; the very thought made a chill run down her spine.

"_Holy shit..." _She thought, _"Just how far is this damn test going to go?" _

It was this distraction however, that made her lose focus to the footsteps she should have heard getting ever so closer, before a cow's hoof busted through the wall in front of her.

"GAH!" Kyouka grunted as the combined sudden shock, surprise and noise caught by her jacks that painfully forced her back; making her fall on her ass, clutching her head in an effort to try stop the pain and ringing that plagued her now.

The hoof retreated back to the wall only to be replaced with several series of tentacles that sprung out of the hole in its stead, the tentacles made quick work of Kyouka as they began wrapping themselves around her limbs in an effort to keeping her from escaping.

"What the hell!?" She screamed out in a complete panic struggling between the pain in her head and trying to wrestle with the tentacles around her limbs, her feed from the chest mounted camera, giving her fellow heroes a front row seat to her sealed fate. Kyouka saw one of the tentacles wielding a small remote like device and that sudden made a small popping sound.

At the base, Kyouka's camera feed suddenly blacked out with an automated announcement following.

"_**Hero Kyouka Jirou has been Killed-In-Action!"**_

* * *

Everyone at the base who had witnessed it was left completely stunned and off guard as none of the plans they had come up during the initial planning had been set for something like this, Izuku knew that this class had felt off from the start, but now at this was the moment Izuku came to one conclusion; _they had been thrown to the wolves._

Now in full on panic mode Izuku's brain was beginning to shoot ideas and plans at a mile a minute to try and compensate for this new dynamic that had been launched to this game. He had been the leader at the start he felt the need to act; to move quickly to try and get things back in order.

"Yaoyorozu! Send everyone I listed to back up Kasei and Hagakure now! I'm going to and try to secure the bomb!" Izuku managed to yelled out before sprinting at full speed out of the base.

"Wait Midoriya!" Momo called out trying to get him from leaving, she like almost everyone else that stood there shaking from the fear that had just been instilled to them, knowing it was too late, she started going over all the notes they had so far now that...everything seemed to be fair game for the villains now..while they as heroes were still limited by the rules.

And that was when it hit her. Momo's eyes grew wide as her seemed to really just why this exam seemed so hard for a first practical exam.

_**Were we meant to fail this?**_

"I do hope you take us far more seriously now my dear heroes. Oh! And before I forget the hostages or in this case _the remaining hostage_ is the only one who can disarm the bomb! Which I have now started its countdown. You have twenty minutes." Mirio began again, as a display of numbers appears of the bombs countdown to detonation.

**19:59**

"I hope you didn't think you could disarm the thing by yourselves? With what training?" Mirio laughed out loud his voice returning to being more overly dramatic and playful. "But I let no one say that I'm not a fair fighter. The bomb is in the building at the heart of site Gamma."

As he said that a signal appeared on the site Gamma map highlighting the bomb's location.

"On which floor however is something you'll need to figure out on your own! I suspect we'll be seeing each other very soon my dear Heroes!" Mirio finished with a bow before the feed cut out and the original display returned.

Momo sat there for a moment as she tried to calm herself and tried her best to salvage the mission with every she had on hand. Kyouka and Mina were down for the count, meaning she could send out one person at that moment, since Izuku decided to take the first spot for himself, she also needed to wait for Eijirou, Katsuki and Minoru to return, so she could send others to replace them.

Knowing that logically that the remaining villains would most likely converge to either eliminating last hostage and remove her from play and or move to defend the bomb, regardless of the scenario; they were going to need some real fire power to deal with the situation and knowing the quirks of her classmates only one in her mind seemed to fit the bill.

"Todoroki! Please head over to Kasei's and Hagakure's location and try to rescue Kaminari along the way if possible!" She said using the coms to speak to Shouto who had still waiting on the rooftop.

Shouto look over the roof remembering where Denki had gone toward, knowing just how dire the situation seemed, Shouto knew that they need to remain calm.

"Understood, I will head out now." He said in low and cool voice before adding, "You're doing a good job considering the circumstances Yaoyorozu." He had been around Tensei long enough to at least try to do something to help calm and reassure Momo from what he had learned from him.

Momo paused a bit shocked from the sudden praise she had received from her fellow recommended student, it helped ease her nerves and move to not waste time speaking out to give everyone else their orders.

"Tokoyami, Uraraka, Asui. The moment Bakugou's team returns from the field please head out to back-up Todoroki."

"What about Izuku? He's going after the bomb alone!" Ochako responded with worry knowing that Izuku would most likely encounter the hardest fight to come. Momo was about to answer when Katsuki and company ran into the room looking furious.

"THE FUCK IS GOING ON GODDAMN IT!?" Katsuki yelled out pointing at the door with his good hand as Eijirou and Minoru made their way to back room. "MOVE OUT!"

"Bakugou please hold on we got to stay calm!" Momo retorted trying to calm the explosive blond down and try to get her barrings with the team.

"FUCK THAT NOISE PONYTAIL! WE JUST HIT SHIT CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE!" Katsuki roared out knowing time was short.

"Hate to interrupt, ribbit, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't be the best match up with Todoroki." Tsuyu injected "Those fire and ice powers can effect me easily if we both aren't careful."

"I can say the same for myself. In addition to both Kasei's and Todoroki's fire quirks, Hagakure's light refraction powers could all could put me in a difficult situation with Dark Shadow." Fumikage added in with Dark Shadow appearing on his left shoulder nodding along with his host.

In the chaos of everyone trying to get a word in none of them noticed that Ochako had followed Momo's original order to leave the moment when Katsuki's group returned. Only she wasn't following the original plan to backup Ryu and Tooru, as she planned to back-up Izuku instead.

* * *

All Might sat there as he could see the fresh wave panic hit his students hard and the order they had when they first started with; had now gone out right out the window. All while Shouta sat still grinning as though Christmas had come early.

"Aizawa...tell me." All Might began. Shouta turned to face The Symbol of Peace.

"Did you really design this exam to be unbeatable?"

Shouta looked at the man for a few moments before answering, yet those few seconds felt like hours to All Might.

"No mission is ever 100% done perfectly or failed completely. In the worst case should both hostages be killed, a secondary option opens up, should the bomb be taken out of site Gamma before its timer goes off. It will count as a victory as the city would be '**Saved'** however who ever carried the bomb would be considered of being caught in blast and therefore '**Killed-In-Action.'**"

Shouta pulled out another snack pouch taking a quick drink from before continuing.

"We can see now that the panic is setting in, now that the original operator and the current operator had all their plans thrown out the window thanks to the change in dynamic. It's here when they start making mistakes that can prove very fetal." Shouta paused here to allow All Might to process, taking another swing of his snack pouch He finished up with.

"Now this is the real reason why I wanted this exam to happen in this manner. I had the big five go easy on the first years to lure them in a false sense of security and make them believe that their teamwork seem better than it actually was. I knew that either Springfield or Shouji would be the first to fall depending who they got matched up with the moment it occurred, I told them to take the kid gloves off and go for the kill. To show them what they had seen out in the field during their work studies and show them a taste of just how unkind the world of heroes can really be. But I don't have to tell you that now do I? All Might."

Shouta's smiled was gone, replaced by a dark mask that spoke years of hardship working out in the field. All Might couldn't retort. Shouta was cruel indeed, but his words spoke so many truths. UA was the time to mistakes and learn from them. When most mistakes wouldn't cost lives.

* * *

Izuku ran as hard running as he could while keeping his quirk topped out at around twenty percent; the most he could output with his costume on before his more dragonic features appeared that could possibility out him. He wasn't as fast as Tenya, but he was already nearby the site where they now knew where the bomb was; as he ran past beyond the site of Katsuki's battle.

Izuku felt the weight of the whole operation on his shoulders. He had been the operator at the beginning of the mission thanks in large part to Katsuki's insistence. Not wanting to fail his best friend, his brother in all but name and blood accepted the role and took charge and now it had all blown up in his face. He was going to do his best to make up for his mistakes for underestimating just how far UA was willing to go to teach a hard lesson.

"Hahaha! Looks like I finally get to have my own fun!" He could hear a voice echo out from the sky. Izuku froze and looked up that is when he saw him. He had remembered him from last year's sports festival and his rather bad habit of being unable to keep his clothes on; it proved to be a good way to make someone stand out even if it was an accident.

"Mirio Togata..." He said to himself bracing for a hard fight he knew that was coming. Mirio was on the top of the building that contained the fake bomb. In his hero costume red, blue dominated by white and proudly featured a golden number **_one million_** splashed across his chest, moving before Izuku could even react however, Mirio jumped off the roof head first, scaring Izuku as he began fearing for his upperclassman's well-being as jumping from that height could do some real damage and he just dived toward Izuku without a care. Bracing himself to catch Mirio instead he was shocked when Mirio seemed to phase right through him and into the street itself.

"What?!" Izuku yelled out spinning around looking for his upperclassman on while remaining on guard.

"Surprise!"

Izuku heard behind him, his reflexes allowing to brace himself for the attack, proving that the lessons with Gran Torino had been somewhat successful.

* * *

Momo finally managed to rein in order by getting Katsuki and his team to get treatment, when she noticed that someone was missing from their number. After a quick head count she realized who was missing.

"Where is Uraraka?" She asked firmly.

It was Yuga who spoke up to answer her. "The mademoiselle left the moment monsieur Bakugou returned as ordered my dear Yaoyorozu," He finished with a sparkling wave.

The answer did not help with Momo's mood however she knew that time was short and at least someone she had already planned to deployed was out in the field. Taking note of the weaknesses that Tsuyu and Fumikage mentioned when planning to deploy the next two people.

_'Okay we need someone with speed...'_

"Iida!" Momo called out placing her bets on a gamble.

"Yes?!" Iida answed suddenly standing to attention.

"I want to you switch out with Satou to be the medic."

Tenya could have kissed the ground that Momo walked on. Happy to see that she saw value in the scion of the Iida family, a chance that he could finally prove himself. After getting the thumbs up from Rikidou that he would take the role, Tenya quickly stood by to hear his orders.

"I want you to back up Uraraka and head over to where Kasei and Hagakure is, Tokoyami I want you to back up Midoriya instead."

Tenya and Fumikage both nodded and began their journey toward their own destinations as they did however the intercom came alive with another announcement, one that granted them hope to their situation.

"_**The Villain Tentacole has been captured!"**_

The control room cheered at the news, especially since there was no announcement that anyone from the Hero team had been taken out. Kashiko took charge and started communications with Denki only to be met with a strange noise.

"Ummm...Yaoyorozu I think something is wrong with Kaminari's coms." She said looking at Momo with a puzzled expression on her face.

"How so?" Momo asked back; before her answer came;Shouto's voice came alive in her earpiece.

_"Yaoyorozu, I think we may have a problem with Kaminari."_

"Is he okay?" Momo asked concerned given Shouto's tone of voice.

_"I don't know how else to say think this other than...He's become something of a bumbling idiot." _

Now it was Momo's turn to look puzzled before looking at Kashiko.

"Sekigai can you bring up Kaminari's video feed?"

Kashiko turned back to the console and brought Denki's camera feed only to be met with Denki's hands giving a thumb's up while pulling back and forth from his chest, accompanied by a loud.

"_WWWHHHEEEEYYY~~" _

All while a confused looking Shouto in the background securing what appeared to be an unconscious Mezou Shouji who was looking a bit crispy.

Despite the situation almost everyone in the control room who had been watching the scene unfold couldn't help themselves but laugh a bit in the unexpected development of Denki's condition.

"_If I was to take a guess, I think Kaminari may have taken down our foe, while his quirk's backlash may explain is current condition." _Shouto suggested.

"Regardless at least it's another villain down, but I don't think Kaminari is in any condition to continue fighting, we will have to get him to return. Asui please move out and back up Tokoyami!" Momo ordered as she recovered from the fit of giggles the scene had caused.

"Call me Tsu please ribbit!" Tsuyu answer before turning to make her leave when they where all suddenly interrupted by All Might's voice.

"_**Young Kaminari has neither been rendered unconscious or killed. You will have to send out your medic to recover him and await for his return before sending someone else."**_

Momo was left dumbfounded given that she had just switched out Tenya for Rikidou and Denki was still a distance away on the roof top no less.

"Todoroki is the ice bridge from the roof still up?" Kashiko asked in an effort to help where she could.

"_No, it does not last long without me. I can make another one and wait for Satou to pick up Kaminari."_

"Yaoyorozu?" Kashiko asked nervously awaiting for her operator's orders.

Momo stood there almost paralyzed on what to do next. Her next move needed to be done carefully, if they hoped to turn things around. However fate tends to prove fickle when she heard a familiar voice, a voice she had only dealt with moments ago calling out to her to be the classes' salvation.

"Ponytail...I got a plan."

* * *

Ryu limped his way down the hall as fast as he could;completely exhausted from the constant fighting or _running away to be more accurate_.

Nejire had proved to be damn too strong for him to even get an attack in edgewise; he turned a corner and found himself trapped in a dead end. If conditions were different, he knew he could win easily, however conditions in this scenario did not favor him in the slightest.

"Ah...find me in the alps..." He muttered to himself knowing he was screwed, he turned around deciding that this would be his last stand as he could hear Nejire's footsteps draw ever closer. He raised his arms in a defensive stance, it wasn't much given she could just blast him from a distance, but at the very least he would try.

_**Tap tap tap tap**_

Judging from the scream he had heard earlier, he made a guess that Tooru must have made contact with the hostage so at the very least he did one part of his job right. Ruling out using his quirk now since he was completely out of breath; trying to use it now could result in cracking his ribs not something he would not want to relive anytime soon especially since he can't use his full power not right now at least.

_**TAP TAP TAP... **_

Nejire appeared from the corner with a terrifying grin on her face, a grin that only grew wider as she spotted her prey.

_'Someone this attractive shouldn't be this damn scary...' _Ryu thought as he finally got a good look at Nejire's skintight blue hero costume. _'Well...at least the view is nice so I can't complain about that.' _

"Not bad! You lasted a lot longer than I thought you would!" Nejire exclaimed face still grinning, before suddenly lunging for Ryu's throat pinning him to the wall completely breaking through his stance.

Ryu's head violently slammed against the wall. He could have sworn that she had applied enough force to make the wall behind him crack. The last thing he could remember seeing as he felt his eyes lids getting heavier was Nejire pulling a small remote and pointing it at him.

_**Pop**_

"_**Hero Ryu Kasei has been Killed In Action!"**_

* * *

Tooru and Reiko were almost down to ground level as they heard the announcement ring out. Tooru knew that the original plan was to get Reiko to safety but now knowing that she was needed to disarm the bomb meant that plan had gone out the window as they would now have to take the hostage into the heart of the danger itself. It was all proving a bit much for the poor girl to wrap her head around.

Hoping to have back up Tooru called out to Momo."Hey Yaoyorozu? Any luck with me getting some help here please?" She asked as quietly not knowing if Nejire would be nearby as she could most likely be heading toward their location now.

Unfortunately for the invisible girl no one was responding to her calls at the moment hurting her mood and morale. Reiko stood by her classmate keeping an eye out for Nejire. She hadn't been saying much given she normal deposition to conversation but she was observant enough could tell despite being invisible Tooru was actually very expressive and ironically kind of easy to read.

Even now she could almost feel the frustration coming off Tooru who was now showing the lack of experience they all had compared to their upperclassman in this exam that now seemed so one sided.

After trying again, Tooru huffed and said. "Let's go, maybe we can find someone at ground level."

What they didn't know however was the Nejire was actually heading toward the roof top instead, ready to execute a plan Mirio had cooked up earlier. As she made it to the roof, she began drawing energy to her limbs ready to take flight towards Mirio's direction when her feet suddenly felt very cold. Looking down she saw they were now trapped in ice.

She heard a cold monotone voice say behind her.

"I am afraid this is where I will have to stop you now."

* * *

Ochako was running as hard past all the purple balls from the earlier battle, she knew that she wasn't following the original plan to back up Tooru instead deciding to follow Izuku instead; knowing that Momo would find a way to adjust as needed as everything in Ochako's gut told her that she needed to back him up instead.

Luck would have it that she barely missed another one her seniors; Suneater who was now heading toward the Tooru and Reiko's location quirk completely refreshed thanks to his snack supply. He spotted Ochako running toward Mirio's direction, but knew Mirio shouldn't have that much trouble with the two so far.

"Hey Mirio you got company heading your way." He said to his earpiece before noticing large rumbling noising getting closer followed by a large dust cloud getting ever close.

"DAMN YOU IIDA!"

Tamaki heard someone yell out, sighing as he saw the armored Tenya running at full speed with a clinging Fumikage holding on for dear life on Tenya's back, the latter coming to a full stop upon seeing the enemy before him, much to a the relief of a grateful Fumikage who latched off and quickly clutched his chest.

"Never again...you madman..." He huffed trying to catch his breath, as his quirk; Dark Shadow began to project from his body.

"**Fumikage, we got company."** It said.

The two juniors looked at their _villainous _upperclassman taking caution. Tenya boldly declaring while chopping away furiously.

"Halt there villain! You reign of terror is over! Surrender peacefully and face justice criminal!"

Fumikage could not help but cringe at Tenya's over dramatic introduction.

While Tamaki's expression was hidden behind his white hood and purple domino mask, he couldn't help but to give a rare chuckle as Tenya briefly reminded him of Mirio. Tamaki looked around the battlefield, it was two on one and barring some additional backup he should be able to handle the two without too much trouble. All he really needed to do was eat up as much time as possible.

"Apologies heroes I'm afraid that I can't go easy on you...otherwise I'll suffer under Aizawa and I'd really like to avoid that as much as possible thanks, now get ready you two."

Tenya and Fumikage both readied themselves. Fumikage knew that his original plan to back up Izuku would have be placed on hold for now. The two juniors heroes-in-training lunged toward Tamaki hoping to get the first strike in.

"RECIPRO BURST!" Tenya proudly roared, his engine legs coming to life; rocketing him toward Tamaki, boosting the speed and strength of his high kick.

"GO! DARK SHADOW!" Fumikage followed, having Dark Shadow lunged toward Tamaki hope to catch him in mid-dodge of Tenya's frontal assault.

"**I GOT IT! HAHAHA!" **

Tamaki dodged Tenya easily and used his quirk to turn his left arm into tentacles once again like had done to Kyouka earlier to wrap around Tenya before dragging him to his front in the hopes to use him as a shield against of Dark Shadow's attack. Dark Shadow avoided striking Tenya instead opting to grab him instead, resulting in the two to begin playing a make shift game of tug-o-war with Tamaki for the armored engine quirk user.

"DANG IT!" Tenya yelled out struggling to break himself free, he would have liked to try and use his quirk to break free, but he knew that doing so with his legs in the awkward positions they were in because of the tentacles. One wrong moment could launch Tenya right into one of the other buildings or worse into Fumikage.

Tenya cursed himself for running into a such a simple trap that only proved the gap of experience between the two students. Tamaki moved to pull out his remote as one of his tentacles removed Tenya's helmet. Either teen knew what to do at this moment as it would seem that Tenya would meet his end here, until an unexpected rescue came in.

"LIGHT REFRACTION!" They heard a voice say as Fumikage realized what was about to happen next unable to recall Dark Shadow in time and too late to have Tooru back out, Fumikage had to brace himself to the shock that was coming.

"**GRAK!"** Dark Shadow screamed as the light that shined began to eat away at it, severely weakening it and being forced to let Tenya go, how ever the light did manage to partially blind Tamaki who's domino mask was not designed to block bright light, it was to his surprise that would cause the strangest chain of events to occur.

Tamaki as still been pulling on Tenya the moment Dark Shadow let of him, making a rather whip-lashed Tenya launched right on top of Tamaki pining him down ground thanks to his large frame.

Seeing the opening Tenya proceed strike his upperclassman with his fists landing several successful strikes to the dazed and blinded Tamaki.

Fumikage managed to remain conscious when Dark Shadow was painfully forced back into him and was exhausted from it given that Shadow Dark was tied to his stamina*. Just how he feared of working with Tooru's quirk, however as tired as he was he still pulled enough strength still to run up and cuff Tamaki successfully as he was still pinned down by Tenya.

"_**The Villain Suneater has been captured!" **_The intercoms announced.

"YAHOO! I did it!" Tooru with the Reiko now appearing from behind the doorway of the building they had exited from.

Tooru appeared to be jumping with joy as she cheered given a small shadow that kept retracting on the street.

Fumikage sighed he could tell that Dark Shadow wouldn't be at fighting strength for a while even with his dark cloak, Dark Shadow needed to recharge and they didn't have time to waste. He helped Tenya get off of Tamaki who still seemed dazed from the rather impromptu assault he had to endure.

"Thank you Tokoyami," Tenya sighed as he was pulled up. "That was rather embarrassing display there."

"No need, despite Hagakure's ill timed attack it proved none the less effective in securing our foe. However we cannot waste anymore time Iida, I would recommend you take the hostage and escort her to the bomb. I'm sure Midoriya and Uraraka could cover you." Fumikage said, before turning around to face where he suspected were Tooru was standing.

"Hagakure, I'm not sure about yourself, but I've been weakened by your last attack and shamefully I must withdraw. If you are not at your best I suggest you do the same to give our allies a chance to join the fray."

"_I have agree with Birdman on this one." _ A voice answered them as their coms suddenly became back to life with a familiar hot blooded voice filling their ears.

"Bakugou?" Tenya asked unsure if he was hearing the voice correct.

"_That's right bitches! Your resident bomber man is now the operator to this deal. Legs! Birdman is right grab the hostage and head to the bomb. I've got back up heading your way now. Mostly thanks to Ass breath's dumbass getting himself killed and we just brought sparky in so we should be good to go." _

Katsuki's then tensed up with a commanding bravado that seemed to awaken with goal getting ever so close.

"_ALRIGHT THEN! ATTENTION TO ALL YOU BITCHES ON THE FIELD! WE GOT NINE MINUTES TO WIN THIS! ICYHOT! KEEP BLUE GIRL** AWAY FROM IZUKU AND URARAKA." _

"_BIRD BOY! SEETHROUGH! GET BACK HERE NOW!, SPARKLES, NORMALTAIL MOVE OUT WHEN THEY GET BACK! LEGS, I GOT PONYTAIL AND BIG LIPS HEADING YOUR WAY AS BACK UP! MOVE OUT!" _

Katsuki's voice rang out with authority that left with no room to question him and while Tenya didn't like his methods of communication, he reasoned that Momo must have placed him in charge for a reason, just how Katsuki was reasoned for Izuku to initially start as Operator.

"Understood."

"Right!"

"Okay!"

The three agreed to follow with Katsuki's plan, Tenya in keeping with the plan proceed to move toward Reiko.

"Excuse me, miss I am here to escort you to the bomb safely. I please recommend that you will please allow me to carry you to the bomb's location so we may get through this as quickly as possible." He said with a straight face; having had lost his helmet during the fight with Tamaki. Reiko who hadn't been privy to the plan given she had no ear piece was now confused and slowly backed away due to Tenya's rather intense presence.

"Ummm...Okay?" She answered seeing that he was the only one who would be moving forward.

"EXCELLENT LET US GO!" Tenya said with gusto, seemingly pleased by her consent.

"Wait Iida!" Fumikage interjected trying to spare Reiko the heart attack she was in for, however it proved too late as Tenya would in a single fluid motion, sweep Reiko off her feet carrying her in his arms like a bride making her yelp with surprise.

"Um wait hold oooooooooooooooon!" Reiko stammered off guard, before being suddenly blasted with Tenya toward the bomb site.

"NEVER FEAR I WILL GET YOU THERE SAFELY MISS!" Tooru and Fumikage could hear him say following Reiko's screams.

"Madness..." Fumikage said exhaustively before turning around to head back to their base with Tooru.

"I don't know, I found it kind of cute, like a total knight in shining armor~!" She exclaimed, not realizing from all the excitement that the adrenaline finally leaving her system, making her feel the exhaustion and pain she had managed to ignored so far.

* * *

Kashiko was surprised when Katsuki returned with an arm bandaged up, but still full of vigor to take charge after Momo's resolve to lead had been so thoroughly shaken. His plan was simple basic, but given all the cards on the table. Basic is what could actually be needed right now.

"Three villains down. Two of us are 'Dead'. Sero and Ashido are both out. Mineta stopped bleeding, but Recovery Girl wants him to sit out for the remainder. Kirishima is exhausted from his injuries and getting healed up. Kaminari is still...whatever that was. Hagakure and Tokoyami heading back. We are both still here. Add that we still have Ojirou and Aoyama waiting. And Asui serving as our medic."

"Call me Tsu please!" Tsuyu interrupted out behind them.

"Umm...yes, We have pretty much exhausted everyone in the class at this rate," Kashiko finished listing out.

Katsuki listened carefully knowing that if they really wanted to win this exam now. They needed to go hard and fast. His idea to make Tsuyu the medic instead of Rikidou proved to a be an excellent start to his role as operator.

Thanks to both her great movement speed and natural agility, she managed to recover Denki quickly. He knew studying Izuku's notes could come in handy someday in developing his own skills to look at quirks in a different light, still he knew that Izuku could still outmatch him in this regard, Izuku was better at long term planning, while he was better in short term tactical field commands.

Katsuki looked over his other plan, seeing that while Shouto hadn't been able to get a real hit on Nejire; he was at least managing to stall her long enough to let everyone else to regroup and converge on the bombsite with any luck he have at least a three-on-one fight to let the rest search and secure the bomb.

He would have preferred to take down the all of villains instead of just disarming the bomb, but he knew that underestimating their seniors had been their greatest mistake, one they where all clearly paying for now.

* * *

Izuku was so thankful when Ochako appeared to back him up, while they hadn't been able to land a single hit on Mirio for far, it had become much easier to dodge him when they started to work together. Both were bruised up from their senior's constant assaults Ochako having lost her visor and riot shield was now heavily dented, while Izuku lost his hood and his costume was beginning to tear slowly revealing more and more of his green scales.

Izuku had been trying to pick up what he could on Mirio's quirk and the timing needed between his attacks and when quirk would activate; Izuku reasoned that if he was just a bit faster he could close that gap further. Yet Izuku _could_ go faster, but that would in turn increase the risk him of revealing his secret.

"Izuku behind you!" He heard Ochako cry out snapping Izuku out of this thoughts.

"I wish you weren't holding back my friend," Mirio whispered, before getting in a combination of punches and a kick before phasing back down, knocking Izuku back hard, before needing to retreat to avoid Ochako's counter attack.

"You okay?" She asked with her shield raised up, waiting for Mirio's next strike. Izuku's head was juggling between recovering from his daze and trying to break this stalemate with Mirio.

"_Keep at it Izuku. I got you on a private line."_

"Kacchan..."

"_Change of plans. I need either You or Uraraka get inside and find the fucking bomb. We don't got much time and I know you're holding back for good reason, but you're not going to win like that against Pip-boy, if you go faster you should be able to catch him off guard...I can shut the cameras off for a bit to let you do what you need to do, I'll let Uraraka know her part; it's time to catch us a Senior."_

Izuku knew he was right, wasn't going to win like this, he needed to go beyond even if he risked getting outed, at least he knew Katsuki would always have his back.

"Right! Ochako move!" Izuku said his voice returning with some strength behind it, Ochako saw the noticed the spark in his voice it would seem like Izuku got his second wind.

"Okay!" She said as Katsuki began giving her orders in order to coordinate their assault.

"Oh no you don't!" Mirio exclaimed appearing before them. "About time you started thinking about the actual objective instead of just fighting me!"

Izuku knew the timing now, he just needed to beat him to be just slightly faster, Izuku glowed to push his quirk around the forty percent range tearing his costume as his muscle mass grew***. Izuku had to take a number of punches from Mirio before managing to block the last one, it was the sweet spot he was looking for as Mirio attention was focused squarely on him.

"_NOW URARAKA!" _Izuku could hear Katsuki yell out as he heard a loud _**SLAP **_sound out marking their success, however it was not without consequences as Mirio had reflexively managed to strike Ochako right in the center of her stomach before finding himself floating in the air out of reach from everyone.

"Whoa! Good job there!" Mirio praised as he tried to keep himself steady and still while floating around freely.

"Ochako!" Izuku said face full of worry as Ochako was on her knees clutching her stomach, trying hard not to let tears of pain run down her face or let herself vomit as she could feel the need to do at the moment. "Are you okay?"

Ochako did her best to put a brave face for the worried boy, " 'm finne...' Ochako managed to gasp out painfully "I got him here; go ya goof...I'll be just fine..." Ochako suddenly stopped as something seemed to catch her attention.

Izuku was about to ask what was wrong when they heard something in the distance, the two turned to see Tenya carrying a terrified Reiko in his arms.

"WE ARE HERE!" Tenya exclaimed proudly when he stop in front of two before gently placing Reiko down, who in turn collapsed the moment her feet touched the ground.

"Sttittistill...alive...ugh..." Reiko groaned out trying to steady her shakey limbs and nausea.

"AHA! I see you managed to capture the mastermind! Excellent work you two!" Tenya proclaimed, while Mirio simply continued to float around casually tapping way at his earpiece, the four unaware he was signaling for Nejire to get there on the double.

"Well we trapped him, but he's not officially caught, since we can't really cuff him thanks to his quirk." Izuku sighed as rubbed Ochako's back gently,"Ochako here took a nasty hit."

"_STOP STANDING THERE AND GET MOVING DAMN IT! YOU GOT ABOUT SIX MINUTES MOVE YOUR ASSES!"_

Katsuki's voice rang out again. Making Izuku realize that they still needed to secure the bomb to have Reiko disarm it, he knew Ochako would recover in time, he just had to trust her.

"Right Kacchan! Iida! You and me can spread out to search the building, once we find the bomb we can have Yanagi here disarm it!" Izuku stated getting up while managing to help Ochako get up on her feet.

"About that...I'm afraid that isn't what is going to happen my dear heroes." Mirio suddenly spoke out loud, the four had been paying much attention to him seeing that he couldn't harm him, but in doing they didn't notice that he had pulled out a remote like device from his costume and had it pointed at Reiko.

Ochako realizing what was about to happened tried to use her quirk to try and force Mirio underground and make him drop it with a sudden change in gravity, but between the pain and nausea it couldn't make it.

_**Pop**_

" _**A hostage has been killed by the villains!" **_The announcement rang out, making the hearts of almost everyone in class 1-A sink as it echoed out.

"_WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!?" _They heard Katsuki bellow out.

"You should always keep an eye on the villains even if you think you got them caught." Mirio winked the three shocked heroes and one very annoyed Reiko who started simply started her quiet walk back to base. Ochako managed to shift Mirio around a few times with her quirk enough to force to drop the device with Izuku securing it.

The trio seemed unsure what to do next, before a new announcement was made.

"_**All Hostages have been killed. Secondary Objective failed. New Objective remove the bomb from Gamma city."**_

"Wait...I..thought All Might said that the hostages were the primary focus?" Ochako managed to wheeze out.

"They were the public focus, not the hidden more objectively important focus. Two lives? Or the whole city?" Mirio answered her. "We should always strive to do both when ever possible, but when push comes to shove; priorities need to take center stage. That's the reason why the hostages were needed to disarm the bomb. In the public eye you have failed, but there is still a chance to save the whole day."

"Iida let's go!" Izuku called out, not wanting to waste more time as he realized again that Mirio had been stalling them for time.

"Right." Tenya answered curtly moving with Izuku into the building.

"Welp at least you're learning!" Mirio called out, before turning to look at a puzzled looking Ochako, as it was just the two of them here now, waiting to see what would happen next.

"You okay there?" Mirio asked upon seeing this strange expression on his junior's face.

Ochako looked up her upperclassman, but she didn't say anything as she was still trying to control her breathing to fight the pain and nausea she was dealing with. Even if she could speak Ochako wasn't sure how she would be able to explain it, as she didn't notice it until just now when Izuku had been in front of her earlier. Izuku's hands they were clawed and his arms that could be seen from his torn up costume seemed to have something shiny and familiar to her almost like...scales.

Ochako wasn't sure if she was just imagining things or if this new train of thought that was taking root in her mind could finally explain why the Midoriya family always seemed on edge regarding Izuku's father, add with a few clues she had managed to piece together and if this idea was true then so much would make sense.

_Could Izuku be Draco Knight's son? _

One part of her was excited at the prospect, but she also knew that would be an extremely touchy subject especially if she was right, who knew how the Midoriya's could react if she just suddenly asked with no prompt.

As the idea grew so did her fears, she loved being around the Midoriya's and didn't want to risk losing the relationship she had been building with them, the last thing they all needed was unnecessary drama. Ochako would have to do some checking after school, but right now she had a job to do.

* * *

**Author's Commentary**

*Dark Shadow: This was a small adjustment to Tokoyami's quirk to tie DS with his own stamina, however in exchanged I made DS a bit stronger and slightly easier for him to control even in darkness.

**Other possible nicknames I thought of for Katsuki to call Nejire included but was not limited to, _**Big Titty Blue, Blue Chick, Chatterbox, Blue Bitch, and Wave Girl.**_

***Izuku doesn't grow that big in muscle mass, but it is enough to strain the costume that was fitted for a smaller person, but this isn't some DBZ levels of gains.

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, _**Chapter XIX: The Trial's Conclusion**_ will be out as soon as possible but I cannot give an official date.

As always my dears readers with lots of love

_**-X**_


	19. The Trial's Conclusion!

Okay! I have some explaining to do! First! I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO MUCH LONGER THAT I THOUGHT IT WOULD.

Honestly, it was mostly due to burn out. I had to do this chapter _TWICE_, since like I said before the original file got corrupted, so having to redo all the edits I had done or redo because I don't have a perfect memory and I know there were some minor changes from the first version but nothing major.

Second my personal kind of went to shit recently. My job is blowing up on overtime and I'm being..._**"Volunteered...AGAIN"**_ to work it...I've been pulling 12-hour shifts for the last two weeks. Add some family issues, and my insomnia returning with a vengeance. (In the last 72 hours...I have collectively had about 9 hours of sleep...you do the math) And well some time to myself, as much as I love working on this project, I still have other hobbies and things to do.

Anyways, third was the sheer scope of this chapter. The original version as this was the final chapter of the original version of the story before I discontinued it, was about 9.8K words long with author's notes.

This version is 13.3K words...without author's notes, that is _A LOT I NEEDED_ to re-write, re-edit, re-read, re-work etc. SO yeah...that is why I am a bit late to the party, but I can officially say 100% for sure we are all caught up to the original version.

From here on in even readers from the original version will be diving into new territory.

Now with that out of the way let's get started. (-Fixed)

* * *

Reviews! (Note two specific reviews will be addressed in the author's commentary.

_**MyHeroFan398:**_ That was just one of the names I came up with, Blue Girl is currently the choice.

_**patrickthenobleman:** _That is one of the keys points about this trial, I hope the breakdown during the results will hammer this in.

_**D3lph0xLov3R:**_ Can you cool it with the All Caps? I feel like I'm getting yelled at(Haha) It is cruel, but so is life and the hero scene is a very tough enviroment to work in, as for Ryu's "death" I mean...this is still a kid ya know? Still I think you might be surprised by future chapters.

_**inFamousSlyMonkey: **_Thanks for your patience, I hope it was worth it as there is a lot to unpack here.

_**Ooobserver:**_ Mirio is in my top running for Best boy in this series and I found his optimism to be one of the best things about his character, as the for remainder well, I do my best to characterize them to canon as best as possible save for Alex who is one of the few characters I have complete liberty to do with his character and wanted him to kind of a foil for Mirio despite how minor is role is.

_**moonstar31548: **_I'm glad you're enjoying it and well yeah that is what UA is for in the end, teaching them to be the best heroes they can be.

_**Jmm1: **_That is a hard question to answer because I could easily write fluff for those two for days and never get bored, but while I can't give you a number, I CAN promise that there will be at least one super extra fluffy chapter in each arc of Saga I, with one planned chapter being sweet enough to hopefully launch several of you into a diabetic coma.

_**JaxTheKnight2319: **_My computer is fine, it was more like...well I know just not to trust my young brother with my USB drive so he could use it for a few of his own school projects. (I thought I had moved all my files to my computer before I let him borrow it. Anyway karma got him to learn to _**EJECT the USB** _before pulling it out of his PC.)

_**AriesNoChuy: **_Well I am here and only half-dead, but nope I'm not planning on letting this fic die anytime soon.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc II: The Incident**_

_**Chapter XIX: The Trial's Conclusion**_

* * *

_**"Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there's little fun to be had in explanations; they're antithetical to the poetry of fear."  
**_

_**― Stephen King**_

* * *

_**A bright white light shined above the battle grounds where blood and water flowed in equal measure. A clash and ringing of steel continued to pierce through the space with a shadows circling at its epicenter. There were large blasts of cannons firing; the roars of a blazing inferno and screams that echoed from every direction with no clear source. **_

_** Streams of salted water ran some came from fear and others from grief. Lighting thundered and crashed unto the battlegrounds ripping the earth a sunder with a great fissure forming releasing a great demon that reached for the white light. And above came an emerald dragon with bright golden eyes glowing with a righteous fury. **_

_** The bright white light was suddenly disappeared spirited away by dark clouds as the clash of the two great beasts began. The emerald dragon with the rainbow of light behind him blurred as he slashed with his blade like claws, while the black demon responded cruel beak, long-rake like claws that seemed to destroy all it touched, it had vicious golden-red eyes. **_

_** With every clash the ground would quake, with every slash the wind would rush, with every roar blood spilled. The battle was short though it felt like an eternity, the demon fell when a black blade charged with lighting striking it down, the dragon roared in rage; cheated by his hollow victory. The rainbow of light that surrounded the emerald dragon began to fade; replaced by a long black shadow that began to engulf him as golden-dragon eyes become those of a ruby-eyed devil. **_

_**A**__** vicious roar, a blood-curling roar echoed out as it now as he parted the dark clouds revealing the white light reaching for it. A piercing scream ripping out as his claws grew closer to the white light.**_

* * *

"AH!"

Sir Nighteye woke up from his nightmarish nap, eyes snapping wide open as he tried to gain control of his breathing while the door of his office burst open and Kaoruko Awata formerly known as the Pro-Hero Bubble Girl; his former sidekick and now his personal secretary wearing a smart dark suit had rushed inside with a worried look etched on her blue face.

"Are you okay sir?!" She asked as she stood in front of him; shaken by his scream as Sir Nighteye was never one to show a display of fear like that.

Nighteye blinked a few times as his nerves began to steady themselves, with his hands slowly running though his face before reaching his eyes; with one fluid motion he removed his glasses and placed them on the desk before turning to rub the grime from his eyes and wake up, after a moment he replaced his glasses and finally spoke his voice still a bit shaky.

"I'm fine...just a dream..."

Kaoruko frowned unconvinced by his words, she decided to follow up with an educated guess.

"Your quirk sir?"

Nighteye leaned back in chair; his brow furrowed and his eyes narrow as recalled his dream, deep in thought.

"I am not sure...if it was my quirk... then this would be the first time it has done something like this in years."

He answered cautiously. Normally his _Foresight_ quirk needed personal and eye contact with a specific individual to work properly, however he knew under certain conditions his quirk would show him the future hidden of an individual who would affect his own future. The last time this happened, was after shortly after All Might's clash with _**All For One**_, when he learned that he would need to become a politician.

Yet in this case what made this so different was that his quirk never acted so symbolic, a fact that was now annoying him to no end. This was a possibility of a dark future; one that could affect everything. He sighed as his nerves finally returned and slowly relaxed his body back into his seat.

"I'm sorry for worrying you Awata," He said in a quiet but firm voice.

Kaoruko laughed with a small uneasy smile knowing he was still acting strange.

"Now I know that something is wrong."

Nighteye could not help but allow himself a small grin form on his narrow face, he finally sat up straight while taking out a notepad and pen from his desk and began jot down notes in an effort to try and remember all the important things he could remember from the dream. Kaoruko found the activity strange, but when it came to Sir Nighteye this was relativity tame; still she had a job to and began to speak.

"Sir, before...what ever this was happened, I have received a few updates for you."

"Proceed," he responded not looking at her as his attention was completely fixed to the notepad.

" First: The Speaker of the House has announced the next full session of the Diet."

"When?"

"Next Monday."

"I see, good I can take my chance to propose my own bill in the next session, given my failure to stop Kimura's idiotic bill from passing, I may not be able to save active foreign Pro-Heroes with this bill, but I hope to shield the students that would be effected at least. What else?"

"I got a call from a Chief Kiriyuuin."

Nighteye stopped writing and looked at Kaoruko and eyes laser focused on her.

"What did he say?"

"An internal affairs investigation has been opened in the Musutafu Police Department."

Nighteye's eyes widened, "I haven't called to vote on that yet...did he mention who opened the investigation?"

"The Chief-Superintendent Kai Doumeki," She answered slightly confused on why this was important, unaware of the investigation that her boss was involved in.

Nighteye sat there stunned; Kai Doumeki opened himself up to an investigation? Was this a trick? Was he so confident that he decided to spring open a trap? Had they been compromised? Nighteye rose up from his seat, he needed answers and he needed them now.

"Sir?" Kaoruko called out nervously seeing the face the man was now sporting.

"I need to step out for a while, I need to make some urgent calls and I need to speak with a friend personally. Take any calls, note and filed them accordingly, I will return as soon as I can." He answered as he grabbed his coat, pulled out his phone and made his way out the office. The call was to Chief Kiriyuuin, and the visit was to Tensei Iida to verify this investigation via his contact in the police.

There was no time to lose.

* * *

Nejire was worn out from her hunt, Ryu may have failed to land a single hit on her, but he did manage to get her winded by the time she finally caught him and knocked him out. Now however she was dealing with one of the two recommended students from the class and judging from both his technique and his sheer judgment as their fight continued.

This one had to have been trained by a seasoned Pro and a damn good one to boot, that being said; she could tell that he was not using the full extent of his abilities. She could observe that the boy primarily used ice for capture and defensive measures;while using his flames for offense instead of mixing and matching to gain the edge, she was unsure it this was on purpose or if he hadn't considered using his quirk in this aside from this manner.

His lack of combat experience showed when she found a pattern after only a few test rounds at the start of their fight, it proved to be her saving grace as it allowed to her conserve her strength while he seemed to be using it without concerns. However Nejire knew that she couldn't last much longer despite how good she was at hiding it, but the boy with the dual colored hair had the edge in stamina here.

As Nejire blasted at another wave of ice that was shielding Shouto and swiftly moved to dodge the incoming fire blast that she foresaw coming, when she began hearing taps on her earpiece.

"_Oh? Mirio got trapped?These first years really are something else!"_ She thought surprised at the news and yet she also found herself being proud of these first years. However now was not the time to being impressed,s he knew that she could not waste anymore time on this fight as Mirio needed backup and quickly made her move to escape, dodging a few more times she as she notice that Shouto's fire attack was always slow at the initial blast before picking up speed.

She picked that to be her opening window; building up as much energy she could in her limbs, she waited for the perfect moment. It wasn't long until Shouto blasted his fire at her, taking the gamble Nejire moved back as she raised her arms to blast through the fire itself, causing the flames to split right down the middle much to Shouto's surprise and quickly switched out his flames for ice to protect himself aganist Nejire's assault.

Nejire did not relent as she continued to focus the energy narrowing to pierce through the layers of ice; prompting Shouto to create even thicker ice layers which caused a large amount of frost to begin coating his body. Nejire seeing that both the line of sight had been broken, she swiftly turned around and blasted off from the energy that had been charging from her feet, becoming airborne and making her way to Mirio's location.

"Damnit," Shouto cursed as he grasped shaking ever so slightly from the cold; quickly producing heat from his left side to melt the ice that now layered his body. "My target has escaped and I believe she heading out to backup the boss."

"_Leave her for now. I got something important for you to help on." _He heard Katsuki's voice growl out.

"Understood," Shouto said has he began to listen on the new plan; up to this point he had kept his thoughts on most of the class to himself, especially after Tenya told him about his frustration of being initially assigned as the medic. He knew that Tenya was trying to prove himself here at UA. Shouto had always known that Tenya had a small, but noticeable bout of envy of his best friend, that started with his one-sided rivalry; the one that started shortly after their first meeting.

Shouto was not the best at being the most social person and didn't understand why Tenya the one who would become his closest friend, had acted that way toward him. It wasn't until he met Mei that his eyes were opened and ironically made it easier not only to understand Tenya and where he was coming from, but why Mei seemed to hang on him so much.

"_Teni has always looked up to the big boss, but I could tell that...he just wanted to be seen..to be noticed like me. Maybe because it was the same with me and Yuno. Our parents always praised them; our elder brothers I mean...leaving us catch up with expectations that we were kind of scared that we might never meet...I know none my babies never got attention from them...not like with Yuno...but they did get a lot of attention from Teni!" _

Shouto remembered that Mei had the best smile on her face that day, Tenya had come from a family of heroes that started from the time before heroes were even formally established. However one could say the true irony was within Shouto himself as he had his own bouts of envy towards Tenya. Despite the two both being rich socially awkward boys with dreams of being great heroes and both having to life up to a grand legacy to follow up on. Yet despite these similarities Shouto was envious of Tenya's ability to be so much more forward than he could;being able to speak out without too much concern something he always seemed to lack.

While Tenya could be a bit much at times, but he had a way at grabbing attention when needed, something Shouto still struggled with and lunch today was proof of this since it was Tenya who had done almost all of the talking and could easily speak to Izuku, Ochako and even Katsuki without any trouble like if they had all been old friends.

_Well Katsuki not so much but still._

While he mostly just sat and ate in silence barely being able to get a word in as he often found small talk to always be a bit troublesome.

It didn't help that he almost gave Izuku a small panic attack when trying to reach out to him; in his mind, he wanted to be the first to offer that reach out to Izuku despite Tenya warning him not to push it. And yet that is exactly what he did and now he regretted it, Shouto gave a a deep sigh as the trial was reaching its climax, Shouto could feel the weight of the trial crashing down on him, making him deal with these complex emotions, from what Shouto could observe this trial was designed to break them down, maybe it was something they were all going to need in the end.

"_I don't have to repeat myself right?" _Katsuki asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"No, I'm on my way," Shouto answered as the last of frost melted away from his body, it was time to finish this.

* * *

Izuku and Tenya had been going through every room on every floor in the efforts to try to find the bomb, splitting up by floor, Izuku taking the even number of floors, while Tenya being able to move faster checked the odd number of floors.

"Iida, any luck?" Izuku asked as he finished looking in the last room in the fourth floor.

"_I just finished my sweep of the fifth floor, this does not make any sense! We saw a picture of the bomb during the briefing, it is far too large for it to be hidden so easily!" _

"We have to keep looking for it! It has to be here somewhere!"

"_THE ROOF NUMBNUTS! YOU HAVEN'T CHECKED THE FUCKING ROOF!" _Katsuki suddenly yelled out in their earpieces, making Izuku start sprinting toward the staircase as it doubled as an entrance to the roof. Tenya however had to stand there for an extra second when he realized that Katuski was correct.

"Right we have yet to check that yet!"

Izuku was the first to arrive with Tenya appearing right behind him only moments later, there in the center of the roof, was a large cardboard box that was decorated with several doodles from their upperclassmen. The doodles included words of encouragement, a few jokes and what Izuku suspected was an attempted drawing of five chibi portraits of their upperclassmen with what a appeared to be a _**winking eye**_ as the artist's signature.

"Midoriya...I am very confused by this..." Tenya said his stony face completely visible as he looked at the box.

"I am too, Iida but we can't wait, we don't have much time left, help me take the cardboard box off the bomb. The system said that the new objective is getting the bomb out of site gamma...and while it is easier said than done it could be tricky if we're not careful."

"_That where I come in. I already got a plan in the works. Izuku, Legs listen carefully." _Katsuki said as he began explaining his plan.

* * *

Mirio was actually enjoying his time floating without the normal restrictions of gravity applying to him, even thinking of ways how Ochako's quirk would really go great with his own quirk barring that he found a way to propel himself around. However he wasn't wasting time as he was also testing if he could somehow use this to gain some momentum to get himself moving and back into the game.

It was no luck however, the gravity girl simply shifted him back into place if she noticed any strong movements or motions to get himself back to the ground; not taking any chances after the last time he had gotten the drop on them. So when that failed, Mirio tried getting her to talk, but after the first question or more accurately when her two teammates left, she had seemingly gone very quiet, as she now wore a firm poker face. Yet given how vocal she was during their fight, something that had reminded him of Nejire, a chatterbox girl, but now this one had gone silent and he couldn't help but wonder why?

"Uraraka!" He heard a feminine voice say, making Mirio look up he saw another duo of his juniors both were tall. The female was wearing a rather exposed looking red leotard with matching red boots and a yellow belt, she had deep onyx eyes and long raven black hair, pulled into a fiercesome looking ponytail. The other a bulky muscular male with large lips in a mustard yellow suit; save for the white boots, gloves and belt.

"Yaoyorozu, Satou!" Ochako called out as the appearance of her companions helped her snap out of her funk and put her mind at ease.

"I am sorry it took us awhile to get here, but Bakugou managed to brief us on the situation. Aoyama and Ojirou should already be on their way as well." She said with the smallest look of disappointment on her face.

"Sounds good." Ochako chirped trying to keep focused on the trial, despite so many "What if" questions running through her head at the moment.

"_OCHAKO WATCH OUT!" _The trio suddenly heard Izuku's voice call out to them over their ear pieces as a large blast of energy was launched at them from the sky.

"Looks like my back up as arrived!" Mirio said delightfully looking up at Nejire who continued to s blast away at the three juniors; while slowly descending and making her way toward Mirio.

The trio immediately split in an effort to try to dodge Nejire's powerful blasts.

"Ohoho! Mirio you're going to get us in trouble for going too easy on them!" She playfully chastised Mirio who in turn simply stuck out his tongue before giving his response.

"I know! I know! But I just couldn't help it in the end! Mr. Aizawa demands are just too harsh for me to go all out!"

"Well we got about three minutes before the test is done," Nejire retorted.

"Oh! And we got two other of our juniors currently searching for the bomb right now." Mirio laughed.

Nejire pouted for a moment before her own villainous smile appeared. "I'm charge now Mirio~"

_'Oh boy...'_ Mirio thought nervously before casually adding. "Oh might want to watch out Nejire-Chan."

Nejire looked down as she saw what Mirio was warning her about and quickly dodged the incoming net that had been launched to catch them in mid-air; fired by Momo from a catapult she had managed to create quickly.

"SHIFT!" They both heard Ochako yell out; with Mirio suddenly feeling extremely heavy and proceeding plumet down to earth dragging Nejire along with him.

"Let me go!" He exclaimed as they rapidly descended when Nejire tried to slow them both down. Nejire let go as Mirio phased through the ground and she had landed safely on the street; behind her Rikidou charged right at her hoping to catch her off guard. Unfortunately for him she was ready with her remote with one quick turn she uppercut the tall boy's jaw, flooring him. Nejire wasted no time and made her point by stepping on him as she pointed a remote at him.

_**POP**_

"_**Hero Rikidou Satou has been Killed In Action!"**_

As poor Rikidou laid there stunned that he had gotten taken out so quickly and easily, only added to Momo's continued loss of morale and confidence as it had been her plan to try and catch Nejire. Nejire looked at the two girls, before turning her attention to Ochako, who was still doing her best to keep Mirio down, but between worrying of possibly killing her upperclassman, having Nejire target her now, and her own nausea hitting her full blast. She had to let go.

"Release..." Ochako gasped out touching her fingers.

Mirio launched right out off the ground and while his face had his trademark cheery expression, he was secretly a tad bit panicked as he need to stay back to catch his breath. The sudden descent and extra time underground despite his quirk almost timing out due to the lack of air, would have normally have him just shoot up the moment his quirk timed out, but he couldn't really do that being forced underground by Ochako's gravity quirk. Nejire however continued to go after Ochako with the remote on hand seeing her at their biggest threat at the moment. Momo could only stand there and watch; unsure of what to do next as in her mind almost everything she had tried continued to go wrong making her second guess herself.

"Sorry I kept you all waiting." A cool voice said from above as Ice began to launch forward trapping the two villains, by their feet.

"Todoroki!" Momo called out relieved to see Shouto descend from one of the buildings sliding down expertly on his ice.

"Ooooo!" Nejire pouted with frustration. She had hoped that she had bought enough time to keep the Icyhot boy out of the picture, but clearly this wasn't the case. She immediately started blasting way at Shouto in order to keep him at bay. Ochako seeing the chance;retreated toward Momo, not wanting to take a chance at getting popped like Rikidou not when she was this nauseous, however as she ran toward Momo an idea began forming in her head as she remembered reading about Momo's quirk from Izuku's notes earlier today.

She knew Mirio had simply phased through the ice without too much effort was taking a moment to catch his breath, she had to be ready for him.

"_**Two minutes remain until bomb detonation!"**_ The System announced, only further putting pressure on the young heroes-in-training.

"_HOLD THEM THERE FOR NOW! LEGS AND IZUKU GOT THE BOMB! DON'T PANIC JUST KEEP IT UP!" _Katsuki's voice rang out in their ears. _"Ponytail! Stop worrying and just keep them busy with another net or some shit! Uraraka, Legs will be down there in a second make sure he gets away!" _

With this the girls both found a second wind, Momo got started making another net, after completing Ochako's request, she opened up her costume, not realizing she just started to flash Shouto, who instantly snapped his head to the side in an effort to look away, despite it making it much more difficult to defend against Nejire.

_'You saw nothing Shouto...__**but I did...**__NOTHING.'_

* * *

Tenya was still inside seeing the battle unfold in front of him. Katsuki's plan was simple and clever, while he disliked his role in the plan, he again forced himself to swallow his pride gripping his cargo like his life depended on it.

"_Ready Iida?" _He heard Izuku's voice over his earpiece.

"I am."

"_OK NOW!"_

"RECIPO BURST!"They all heard Tenya's voice yell out as he blasted through the front door with a large cardboard box overhead. Unfortunately for Tenya as he made his exit from the building he had failed to notice two key things. One was the ice that now covered most of the street including the very front of the building's entrance slipping on it and second was Momo's exposure.

In his efforts to be a gentleman and despite falling on his ass, Tenya closed his eyes leaving himself completely defenseless as he still had the cardboard box overhead. Mirio quickly leaped into action going after Tenya, only to have Ochako run right behind him with a little surprise from Momo.

Nejire couldn't attack Ochako both due to her lack of stamina and still trying to keep Shouto's ice at bay. All eyes where on the ground level and not in the sky above. Tenya had landed awkwardly his armor protecting him from the worst of the damage, but between his brain rebooting from the pain and the shock of having Mirio getting closer to him he couldn't do much of anything.

Before Mirio could do anything however he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"SHIFT!"

Mirio turned around un-solidifying the upper half of his body as Ochako launched right into Mirio and went right through. She couldn't warn Tenya of her plan, since she needed to keep the element of surprise; preventing Mirio a chance to defend against it.

When Mirio turned around making himself solid once again, he was immediately stunned by the flash grenade that Ochako had Momo produce with her quirk.

Normally Mirio's quirk would have prevented light from going into his eyes blocking such things, but it also makes him temporarily blind and deaf as well. The moment he turned making himself solid was the moment Ochako had pulled the pin on a gamble.

It worked as Mirio eyes watered, he couldn't help but grin, impressed by sudden improvisation of his juniors as Ochako managed to touch him and get him floating once again. Nejire was about to blast Ochako out of the way, when a beam of light shot through Shouto's ice wall, striking her dead center of her stomach.

"Oof!" She breathed as the remote slipped from her hands.

"We are here!" Yuga called out from behind Shouto sparkling, as Mashirou got a running start using his tail to assist his jump; clearing the ice wall with grace, taking full advantage of his opponent's lowered defenses. He began to strike at her with his fists, Nejire managed to dodge and block most of his attacks despite still being in pain from Yuga's own attack, but she was completely spent on stamina by this point.

"Ojirou move out of the way!" Shouto called out. Mashirou hearing the urgency in his voice immediately jumped back just in time for Momo fire her freshly reloaded catapult net again. It was a bull's eye as Nejire was successfully caught under it, only to almost end up becoming completely frozen save for her head and her right arm by Shouto ice.

"Oh! SOO COLD!" She shrieked as her bodysuit gave her very little protection from the cold. Mashirou seeing his chance,jumped forward and cuffed Nejire's hand capturing her.

"_**The Villain Nejire-Chan has been captured!"**_

Mirio took in a deep breath and gave a big smile, despite still being blinded. He was very proud of these first years.

"Hey Gravity girl!" He called out unsure where exactly Ochako was due to his blurred vision. Ochako looked at her senior with an air of caution.

"No tricks, cuff me. There is no way I can beat you guys like this," He said as he slowly extending his arms outward fingers outstretched showing no remote in his hands.

Ochako slowly and careful walked forward before cuffing one of Mirio's arms as he floated in the air. He had proven true to his word.

"_**The Villain Lemillion has been captured!"**_ The System announced followed by another message.

"_**All Villains had been successfully captured!"**_

The remainder of the group either sighed with relief or cheered as Shouto began removing all of the ice on both his body and Nejire who was starting to beg to be unfrozen, while Ochako gently released Mirio from her quirk's influence.

"**The Bomb must be still be removed from Gamma City! Countdown T-Minus 32 seconds!"**

As if that trial was not stressful enough, they had to be reminded of the bomb, as almost everyone who could scrambled towards Tenya's position to help him remove the bomb.

"Iida hurry! You need to get the bomb out of here!"

"Here I can make it lighter!"

"You're the only one fast enough to get out of here in time!"

Tenya couldn't help but laugh he opened eyes reveal their dark red color* having been spared from the flash bomb's glare and gave everyone a reassuring smile.

"I do not believe your concerns are warranted everyone, after all where do you think Midoriya is at the moment?"

As if on cue from the far distance was huge flash of light followed by a loud.

_**CRASH**_

It was only a few seconds later when the speakers called out to all of them once again.

"_**The Bomb has been successfully removed from Gamma City! Hero Izuku Midoriya has been Killed In Action from the bomb's detonation! Mission Accomplished!"**_

A loud horn began to sound out throughout Site Gamma marking the end of the battle trial.

"_GOOD JOB EVERYONE, PLEASE REPORT BACK TO THE BASE AND REST UP. WE WILL GO OVER RESULTS AFTER A SHORT BREAK!"_ All Might's voice announced from the speakers.

* * *

Almost everyone from the field to the control room to the teacher's observation room remained silent; many simply left stupefied by the whole event.

Eraserhead himself found himself especially speechless, not by the victory necessary, but by the last minute switch. Katsuki's plan of having Izuku using an ice bridge that Shouto had created to get the bomb from the highest roof-top before using his own quirk to jump from roof-top to roof-top carrying the bomb only using his quirk near the max, to land safely on the ground nearby the entrance. Tenya and cardboard box was just a distraction, it was reckless but it had gotten the job done.

He could observe an exhausted Izuku making his way back to the base completely winded; costume torn to shreds with crater only a few feet away with the fake bomb he had left there.

'_Well, looks like they did much better than expected for first years...still they have a lot to learn and looks like some of my third years needed to be reminded on what I expect when I demand the kid gloves come off...' _Shouta thought annoyed bit by the results, but in the end he reasoned this may just be karma.

_'Heh, as if I would believe in something so irrational..'_

* * *

At the base everyone slowly began to unwind, some were using the restroom, others were at the nurse's office, while others simply stayed awaiting the results of the trial. In the makeshift recovery room, Mina was slowly stirring awake thanks in part to the light chatter that filled the room.

She blinked as her eyesight slowly returned, she could hear the deep groans of someone nearby followed by the cries of a familiar voice.

"I'M SORRY! PLEASE FORGIVE ME" She could hear Eijirou cry out from behind the curtain to her right.

_'Kiri?'_ She thought as she processed the voice.

"Kill...me...this...is the worst..pain...ever" She heard another familiar voice, one that helped to snap her out of her daze.

_The battle trial, _she remembered making her sit up straight to deal with a sudden shot of pain that made her squeal and forced her back down.

The noise was enough for Eijirou to stop his pleas and check up on her.

"Hey Ashido..." He laughed nervously. "Glad to see you're awake, I'm sorry about your injuries, Springfield threw me on top of you while I was hard..."

"PHARSING, HAHAHA! OW SON OF BITCH!" They both heard Alex joke out from behind the curtain. Making Eijirou's face turn red realizing now how that could be interpreted. Mina however simply waved it off with a laugh, not completely displeased given that Eijirou's body left very little to the imagination and she wasn't going to complain about that.

"It's okay horn buddy, I can think of worse ways to get knocked out. But how did I get here?" She asked confused.

Eijirou was about to answer when Alex called out again in a mocking voice.

"Your prince charming here carried you~."

"HEY!" Eijirou called out his face starting really starting to burn now making Mina giggle. "Can't you spare me Springfield?"

"Nope! Not after what you did to my nuts boyo. I need my nuts damn it! You have yet to begin to suffer my wrath!...Ow."

"Awww," Eijirou groaned out, much to the amusement of everyone else.

"Well if that's the case. Thank you horn buddy." Mina said warmly hoping to cheer him up.

"Uh...Yeah it was no trouble." Eijirou answered back a bit relieved that at least Mina would grant him mercy.

"You know I can hear you guys..." They both heard Hanta's voice called out from the opposite side of the Mina's curtain. "Seriously your flirting is cute and all, but can you keep it down a bit?"

"Shut up Sero!" Eijirou yelled out his face finally turning as red as his hair.

"I ship it..." Alex called out again followed by a few laughs from around the room.

"Oh come on!" Eijirou exclaimed clutching his head from the teasing, while Mina spoke up answering Hanta.

"I'm sorry Sero!"

"Yeah, yeah."

"WHEYYYYY~"

Mina blinked at that last noise unsure of the source.

"What was that?" She asked Eijirou only to have Kyouka answer instead while clearly trying to withhold her laughter.

"Kaminari, apparently goes dumb if he over uses his quirk."

"Oh hey Jirou, you okay there?" Mina asked as she turned around to face another curtain hearing it as the source of Kyouka's voice.

"Ehh...I was the first hero to "die" so that really blows..." She answered while sounding very annoyed by that fact.

"Hi everyone! It's nice to meet you all." A new voice called out from the corner of the room accompanied by squeaking wheels, where Mina assumed was where the entrance was, Eijirou proceed to open her curtain, along with Tsuyu and Fumikage to give everyone a clear view of their guest.

It was girl around Momo's height with tan skin, short shiny blonde hair and amber eyes, wearing a white apron over her UA uniform, and pushing a small cart that seemed to completely packed with snacks.

"I'm Jou Mori, but you guys can all call me Pani." She cheerfully introduced herself, "I'm your Business course liaison, and I've got a bunch of homemade shacks to get you guys feeling better." She added as she uncovered some of the more tasty looking treats, like brownies, mochi, jelly, fruits, buns and a few simple sandwiches in addition to a few other random assortments much to everyone's delight, as several who could stand began making their way to get their fill.

"I've got another two carts outside the room in case you guys want more, just let me know okay?" Jou reassured the heroes-in-training as some seemed unsure if they could have some of more scarce items on the cart.

"Awesome!"

"Sweet!"

"Oh good, ribbit." Tsuyu added as she happily helped herself to some of the jelly on the cart. Jou looked very happy as the class seemed to enjoy the treats she and her teammates from her own class made; while slyly pulling out a small notebook to take notes on the incoming results. Katsuki helped himself to a spicy pork bun while eyeing up Jou, not complaining at the sight.

"She catch your eye man?" Hanta joked as ate a sandwich seeing the Ash blond's eyes looking around, as Katsuki only grunted in response as he currently had a mouthful of the juicy and spicy pork bun.

_'Damn this is good._'

"Oh yeah baby that's the good stuff." Alex proclaimed as he was being helped up by a now awoken and singed looking Mezou Shouji, as he ate a plate of brownies that had been brought his way by Eijirou.

While Rikidou made his way inside the recovery room without his face mask, surprised to see Jou here, but wasn't going to complain given that she had brought them all some much needed provisions.

"Hey Pani." He yawned out grabbing a bun and sandwiches, only to be enveloped by a hug from the blonde.

"Heya Hun." She answered much to everyone's surprise, Mina with her shipping senses maxing out made herself shoot right up ignoring her pain and looked at the two with surprise.

"Hun?!" She asked with a wide-eyed grin.

"We've been dating since middle school," Jou answered her, "but I've known him for ages longer."

All while Rikidou bashfully looked away from everyone else, he wasn't as touchy as Jou, but it wasn't like he was going to keep it a secret.

"Oooh ouch, looks like you no chance to begin with Bakugou." Hanta whispered to Katsuki who clearly looked irked by this revelation.

"GUYS I THINK SOMETHING IS WRONG HERE!" Tooru cried out, as Ryu seemed to be convulsing on his bed. Mezou being the oldest and most capable made his way to Ryu's bedside.

"Get back, I think he might be having a seizure, someone go get Recovery Girl." He ordered as he grabbed Ryu to steady him while making sure he wouldn't choke himself in his own tongue. After a few moments Ryu's eyes snapped open, unable to breathe, looking around wildly, Mezou almost by complete instinct pulled back while making Ryu face the ceiling before the black hair boy coughed out a large jet of fire from his mouth.

"HOLY SHIT!" Was among the cries as the fire began to blacken the ceiling, with Ryu now coughing heavily trying to get air in his lungs.

"You okay my young friend?" Mezou asked calmly as he held the teen firmly while keeping an eye pod on the ceiling to make sure it hadn't caught fire.

"W-ww-w-water." Ryu managed to croaked out, before being handed a bottle by Minoru who had just returned from the restroom only to see his friend seize up like that.

Ryu simply nodded his thanks, before biting the cap off and downing the whole thing in one quick gulp.

"Damn man, easy there before you choke." Hanta commented nervously.

"Ah...yeah sorry about that," Ryu growled out, his voice sounding much more hoarse, "it happens sometimes, when I forget to breathe."

Katsuki clicked his tongue annoyed by the guy who already made him on edge, "How the fuck do you forget to breathe Ass Breath?"

"It's called Sleep Apnea** Asshole." Ryu deadpanned with a annoyed look on his face.

Katsuki not content and seeing Ryu's response as a challenge started up. "Then how about you to keep it up, after all corpses aren't supposed to be breathing or talking Ass Breath!"

"Whoa man, isn't that a bit much?" Eijirou interjected, trying to defuse the situation.

Ryu however wasn't one to back down either, "I don't see you saying that to Jirou or anyone else who got killed blondie!"

The two continued their back and forth with some trying to calm the two down. Katsuki only growing angrier with the teen who seemed to have his dead master's face, seeing it as an affront to the man he respected.

"You're pushing it Ass Breath!"

"Can't handle the fire _Kacchan_?"

Katsuki stood up and looked like he about to make his way to Ryu's bedside. His master's face aside, no one was permitted to refer to him like that, not the least of all this prick. However others moved in front of him to block his way.

"CAN'T HANDLE THE NICKNAME BOOM BOY?!" Ryu continued unconcerned by Katsuki's more aggressive attitude, "WHAT ARE WE ALL NOT WORTHY OF BEING ADDRESSED BY OUR NAMES SAVE FOR YOUR FRIENDS? WHAT ARE WE THAT BENEATH YOU?"

"Kasei calm down please!" Tooru plead trying get the two to stop, while Mezou had finally stood up got between the two extending both sets of his arms to make sure they kept their distance.

"I AM ABOUT TO BLOW YOUR ASS TO HELL!" Katsuki bellowed out, the tension reaching its breaking point, until someone else yelled to serve a voice of reason.

"PHASING HEHEHEH...OW" Alex joked out again loudly this to gain everyone's as he forced himself out of his bed, clearly still in pain giving how much trouble he was having standing up. "BOTH OF YOU SPICE BOYS SHUT. THE. FUCK UP! Ow...bruised nuts aside, I will smack both of you down if I have to,I don't know and I don't care what is up both your asses, but it stops _now_!"

The room finally stood quiet as their senior had laid down the law ready to act if either teen tried something.

"Now, neither of you ladies are winning a beauty contest anytime soon, so calm down, eat some of these kick ass brownies and chill out." Alex finished up before sitting back down once he saw Katsuki's body language slack and sat back down, with Ryu lying back down, much to the relief to everyone else. Until one of them felt the need to make one last remark.

"For the record I don't swing that way my fellow spice boy." Ryu added dryly, to the laughter of a few in the room.

"_MOTHERFUCKER!"_

* * *

Hitoshi groaned hearing the commotion from the recovery room that sat opposite of the secondary break room they sat in, as everyone else who was still out in the field and yet were not injured came in to relax, before the results were announced. He had been speaking at length with Reiko his fellow liaison about their experiences and general complaints about their roles.

"So noisy..."Hitoshi commented rolling his eyes at the antics of the hero course students. "Anyway I'm just glad it's over and we'll get our chance to train with Eraserhead soon."

"Well I mean at least you got eat something," Reiko pouted reliving her experiences with Nejire. "I had to deal with Nejire's constant questions, which got old very quick."

Hitoshi however simply took a sip of his water bottle as he observed a pink hair girl from the support course, gathering everyone specialized gear and chatting up with two others in Class 1-A.

"You'd think they would have secured us first though." He finally added, only for Reiko to counter with,

"This trial was way more advanced than what any of them where clearly ready for Shinsou. You can't blame them for that."

Hitoshi simply grunted his response, yet he had to reluctantly had to agree with her, yet he also knew that if he had been given liberty to use his quirk, he could have easily gotten out on his own. The same could be said with Reiko's poltergeist quirk could have been used for supporting the heroes, but no such chance was given nor permitted. How else would they get a chance to practice using their quirks? In the end all he could hope for was that the side training would be worth it.

* * *

The announcement was made to have everyone change back into their normal uniforms with broken gear or torn up costumes to be given to a small team of support course students lead by the wild card Mei Hatsume.

Some got changed quickly thanks to their simple costumes, others took a bit longer thanks to multiple layers that needed to be removed.

"Man is anyone else feeling better after eating?" Hanta asked aloud as they got dressed.

"It's most likely Pani's quirk, when she makes food or drinks, she can add a small boost to it, kind like a stat boost or buff in an RPG." Rikidou answered offhandedly. "Last I checked, I think it kind of depends on the food too, like spicy stuff makes you stronger, cold stuff makes you tougher, but avoid the sweet stuff if you can."

"Why?" Izuku asked as he seemed stop getting dressed in favor of jotting down notes about Jou's quirk.

"Ehhh...It just gets kind of weird.."Rikidou answered awkwardly much to the confused looks from everyone else.

"Well I mean like the brownies if you ate like one or two you should be fine," Rikidou continued trying to reassure his now concerned looking classmates who had eaten said brownies.

"Wait a minute..." Eijirou thought for a moment when he remembered what he did earlier. "Oh...oh no."

Outside of the conversation the trio of Denki, Ryu and Minoru chatted as they got changed; Denki who was still suffering a few side-effects from his quirk was feeling better thanks to some sour candy Jirou had gotten him. Denki noticed something rather odd about his dark haired companion.

"Dude are you okayyyy~?"

"What?" The muffled voice Ryu questioned as he started putting on his shirt.

"Dude, all those scars on your back man..."

Others who simply happened to be listening in faced to see what Denki was talking, some still worried due to Ryu's earlier freak out despite getting the all clear from Recovery Girl. It was not a pretty sight as Ryu's back was riddled with several scars ranging from big to small, the most noticeable was two large ones that ran parallel to his shoulder blades. Maybe the most disturbing part of all; was that the scars seemed like they had been burned into him.

"Ah...those...eh I got into some into a few fights here and there; mostly due to bullies. But I did need surgery to fix up some of the worst ones ya know?"

"Kaminari, it is rude to point out something like that." Tenya interjected as he finished putting on his shoes.

"Oh geez, sorry man." Denki said sheepishly, putting his hands together as a way to confirm of his sincerity.

"Thanks Iida, but it's cool. I honestly tend to forget that I even have these scars."

"Don't worry about Ass breath's shit." Katsuki said as he walk by bumping right into Ryu intentionally before walking out the locker room.

"Kacchan!"

"Bakugou!"

Izuku and Tenya said in unison before leaving the locker room to catch up to him. Shouto's eyes however narrowed. Katsuki so far didn't seem to have an issue with anyone except Ryu, but just why was this the case?

Ryu however seemed to shrug it off. When he turned around way from everyone sight a small smirk growing on his face.

_'Something tells me that Katsuki may know more than he leads on...I'll have to check over some of my notes on him later.'_

"Damn what's his deal?" Denki asked having been informed of their last confrontation by Minoru.

"Yeah, he seems to have it out for you, you should be careful." Minoru added worried about the way the ash blond teen had been acting.

"I don't know what is up his ass and I don't care, a hot head like that is the type that normally causes trouble with his alpha dog bullshit anyway and it's not worth my time to worry about it." Ryu answered dismissively. "Come on let's go get the results."

* * *

Izuku finally caught up to Katsuki in the hallway after he had asked Tenya to go and check on Ryu, given that he knew about best to deal with Katsuki.

"Kacchan just what was that about?" He asked nervously given what he had heard happen earlier. "You've really been getting on Kasei's case...just what is the matter?"

Katsuki turned around slowly his brow narrowed show that is was clearly deep in thought.

"Prick rubs me the wrong way...ever since his intro and his fucking face."

Izuku remained silent, he had noticed it as well. Ryu's face looked so much like his deceased father, save for the shape of his eyes which actually looked more like Katsuki's, but Izuku also knew saying that would most really set him off. It didn't help that tabloids still spread rumors of his father having mistresses when he was alive, yet Ryu had a quirk that let him breathe fire, rather than his father's quick that gave him scaled skin and claws.

"I mean the _**Dragon Slayer**_ comment aside, it's not he's has done anything or said anything that would set off alarm bells. Besides you acted like this with Ochako."

"Tch..and last I checked she still doesn't know about Uncle...Look just keep an eye on the bastard okay?" Katsuki responded getting more and more annoyed by the conversation.

"Kacchan this isn't middle school anymore..." Izuku tried to reason, unsure if he should mention what Shouto had told him earlier.

"Then why did I have to shut down some of the cameras from the control panel during the end of the trial to make sure you weren't seen?" Katsuki retorted to shut him down.

Izuku flinched but continued by saying. "Still, there is no proof that he knows anything."

"You don't know that for sure...my gut just keeps telling me to keep an eye on the guy..."

Izuku sighed he knew Katsuki wasn't going to let this go anytime soon, hell he had only recently warmed up to Ochako and that took over a month. Izuku knew he simply had let it go for now and let Katsuki be; hoping that he would slowly let it go as he did with Ochako. Finally the two began walking up to class in a silence agreement with their next course of action. Katsuki could continue his paranoid behavior only if he doesn't rock the boat and Izuku won't interfere unless he feels like Katsuki is going too far without proof.

* * *

The classroom filled up with chatting students, some showed signs of fatigue, others seemed a bit more relaxed that they should have been, while others seemed full of energy despite the hell that they had gone through, after a few moments. Eraserhead and All Might walked followed shortly by the big five save Alex who was being pushed by Mezou in a wheelchair groaning and giggling to himself mouth stained brown from all the brownies he had eaten.

_'Ah crap.'_ Eijirou thought to himself upon seeing Alex's condition.

"So the results of your battle trial proved much more interesting than originally expected." Eraserhead started up.

"Indeed my young batch of newbies! You all performed far better than was originally expected given that your first trial was far more advanced what you were meant for!" All Might proclaimed while being everyone a thumb's up in approval.

The class collectively felt like that was the understatement of the century.

"Originally had I designed for you to fail this exam no matter the circumstances and even though you captured all of the villains and saved the city, you still failed in saving the hostages." Eraserhead continued after allowing All Might's comment.

Many in the class flinched or looked away in shame; especially those who lost hostages in their care or just within their reach.

"However in terms of an overall grade. You all pass."

The room went silent, some from relief others from shock, as the comment only seemed to raise more questions from the class.

"Sir!" Tenya said as he raised his hand in full view of everyone.

"Yes Iida?" Eraserhead said looking at the tall engine quirk user.

"Just why was this trial so advanced? As much I would enjoy a good challenge, why the need to throw us to the wolves?"

The final line especially made some of the big five laugh a bit.

"A valid question my young lad." All Might commented turned to see how his peer would answer this, Eraserhead however was more than prepared.

"I'm going to assume you have all had some idea on how day to day life for a Pro Hero works: flashy fights, interviews, marketing deals and the like." He started off before continuing.

"Like many things in life, there is often a bit more an exaggeration than straight truth. No one ever talks about mission or incident reports that need to be filed, the victim processing reviews, the real down, dirty and un-glamorous side of our work as Pro-Heroes."

"Using this trial for example, unless the Hero in question has a quirk to assist with it. They do not serve as actual mission operators, that job tends to fall into the police who can authorize changes in the mission parameters as prescribed by law."

Shouta could see the cogs in some of his students head beginning to turn as they processed he just said.

"This also a way to identify glaring issues like certain habits." His voice suddenly snapping."Getting distracted..."

Denki and a number of others knew they fell under this category.

"Under estimating the threat of your opponents and mission on hand."

Izuku and Katsuki both fell into this one for sure, however Ochako and Tenya could also feel some shame in this.

"Losing your cool as the situation continued to grow dire."

Momo looked under taking that last comment especially hard.

"And collectively not taking the trial as serious as you should have, since some of you decided to take full advantage of trial and allow yourselves to die and if I start to see martyrs among you. I'll be sure to have a talk with you personally to address that."

"All of these and much, much more are habits that both needed to be identified so we can begin correcting them early when lives are not at risk. I'll be sure that Midnight goes over the individual reports with you so you can began to work on your individual faults...Now as for you lot..." Eraserhead finished before his scarf suddenly activated and wrapped around Mirio, Nejire, and Tamaki. Mezou and Alex however seemed to be spared from his wrath.

"You will introduce yourselves before getting to join me in my office for a very severe lesson in what I mean when I say not to take it easy on them." The sudden tone and aura from Eraserhead terrifying everyone in the room, when he seemed satisfied that he had finally made his point across; he released his senior students and began walking out of the room leave the four of the big five sweating lightly. While Alex simply sat there still completely out of it.

"Oh that reminds me," Eraserhead said as an afterthought as he stood right by the doorway, his head turning to the class and eyeing two specific students.

"Bakugou and Tokoyami please stop by my office after school. There is something important we need to discuss." And with that he continued his exit out of the classroom.

The two boys looked at each for a moment, and almost with a silent nod understood something that no one else knew with Izuku wondering just what exactly that was about and he wasn't the only one.

Mirio however quickly snapped out of his own funk caused by Eraserhead and started off the introductions.

"Hello everyone this may not be the best way to make a good introduction, but the name is Mirio Togata! Hero name Lemillion! And I have to say you guys really managed to impress me with some of your skills!" He said with a great big smile and giving everyone a thumbs up.

Next up was Tamaki who simply turned around placing his head against the wall dreading the "lesson" with Eraserhead.

"Tamaki Amajiki...and I just want to go home..." He said with voice trembling as he began producing a depressing aura that seemed to darken the room.

"His hero name is Suneater!" The bubbly Nejire interjected to spare Tamaki and trying to brighten up the mood with her own. "HI I'm Nejire and my hero name is Nejire-chan! Some of you really impressed me! Others not so much."

Ryu's head dropped clicking his tongue, feeling the blow to his ego on how he had been taken out by her. Denki and Minoru both patting their friend on the back. While Katsuki had a silent cackle to himself with knowing how badly Ryu was been owned.

The tallest and the most formal of the group the boy with six arms bowed to everyone as he said his introduction to the class.

"Hello everyone. My name is Mezou Shouji and my Hero name is Tentacole."

"Hheeheh...Don't mihnd teh biiig guy! He's definition of da_** 'Strong, silent type.'**_"The brown haired boy in the wheelchair suddenly spoke up slurring.

All Might whispered to Mirio.

"He is alright?"

Mirio shrugged before whispering back. "Recovery Girl got him on some painkillers, since she can't heal him yet, but she said it shouldn't be affecting him that much..."

All Might shuttered a bit, the injury must be bad if Recovery Girl is delaying treatment.

"Alex Spriiningfieeldfld issss mah naMe and.. I just wanna say...I just love all ya..." He groaned out with a bit of drool coming out from the corner of his grinning mouth eyes disfocused, much to the confusion of everyone else in the class by the foreign boy's antics.

Of course it would be Katsuki who would be the one to break the ice and ask.

"Is he high?"

"Bakugou it's both rude and disrespectful to say something like about our upperclassm- " Tenya had said before Alex interrupted in a high pitched voice.

"Like a kite!" With a complete straight face only for him to start breaking into a fit of giggling. Causing some in 1-A to laugh as well finding his laughter infectious. Eijirou laughing nervously as he continue to feel guilty for Alex as he both punched the guy in the balls and had gotten him several of the brownies Rikidou had said to avoid eating which may have led to his current condition.

All Might coughed to get everyone's attention as the five made their exit.

"Hey Shouji...can weee geit mora of thossse brownies? They help make pain go away..Oh and milk too!" Alex could be heard saying as he was wheeled out of the room.

"Now for the final bit of the trial. There is one more key lesson. While this was a collective class trial we still hold rankings for both teams and individuals."

This made everyone look back up at All Might. As he pulled up the roster with point values via a hand projector.

* * *

1st Team Four: 2 Captures, 4 assists, 1 rescue, -1 loss

2nd Team One: 1 Capture, 2 assists, 3 rescues, Bonus: Bomb Capture 1, -1 loss

3rd Team Three: 1 Capture, 2 assists, Bonus: Scouting Specialties +2, -2 losses

4th Team One: 1 Capture, 1 assist, 1 Rescue, 0 losses

* * *

Everyone look at the scores with unease, especially those in team four who had basically been exhausted early on in the trial with no chance to recover.

"However despite the results, our MVP for this operation is none other than Team Four's Katsuki Bakugou!" All Might announced with Katsuki's name appearing at the bottom highlighted. Much to the sudden praise and applause that was given to a smug looking Katsuki, as he sat confidently in his seat.

"From being on the field to taking control of the situation when it things took a turn and building on what the others left behind you did an excellent job today young Bakugou." All Might continued remembering that Eraserhead had been completely against this placement, but it was ultimately All Might's choice in the end.

"I'm aiming for the top All Might nothing more, nothing less." Katsuki responded.

All Might nodded firmly.

"Excellent now I will end today's lesson with this: First I am sorry about the trial, if it makes you feel better Class 1-B will be going through the very same exercise once young Springfield recovers. We will be going over hero work that is more in line with your year group."

Many in the class felt relieved to hear that.

"And second for those of you who were taken out of play or feel especially drained from this trial, chin up! All of you did much better than expected; far exceeding our expectations despite the hardships that was laid out to you unfairly, yet I know now I can say with absolute confidence that we do in fact have a very promising batch of future heroes here."

For those who feeling down due to their personal shortcomings revealed in the trial did start to feel a bit better hearing those encouraging words from the symbol of peace, man everyone in the room looked up to. Others however continued their mulling over the trial in the hopes to take this lesson to heart.

"All Might you all done~?" A rather sultry voice by the door said, as the class collectively turned to see their homeroom teacher Nemuri in a rather provocative pose leaning against the door.

"Hmm yes! Yes! Class dismissed! I will leave them to you now Midnight." All Might answered with an awkward cough before walking out of the classroom, while Nemuri retook her place at the podium with an armful of sheets to go over with the class.

* * *

As the day ended Katsuki walked his way to the teachers lounge with Fumikage. He knew that this was going to come up sooner or later, but he didn't want to worry Izuku with the details. He simply told his two friends to go on a head home without him since he wasn't sure just how long this could take.

"Bakugou...It is not my place to ask, but tell me. Are you also on probation?" Fumikage asked with a quiet caution as they walked down the hall together. Katsuki remained silent for a moment before answering, there was no denying that they where both heading the same way for the same reason.

"Yeah...had to go to an anger management counciling before I was allow to come here."

Fumikage hummed in acknowledgment.

"My quirk." He started. "Has a mind of its own. While I can control it for the most part, there have been times when I have lost control and...well the laws in place have a heavy biased toward those like myself."

_Those with volatile quirks._

He wanted to say, but found it redundant to say. When the two arrived to the entrance of the teacher's lounge they were met with two other students with their uniforms confirming that they were also Hero Course students***. One was a tall muscular boy with glasses, he had face that reminded Katsuki of a dog due to the great amount of wild brown hair covering his body. The other was tall and lanky boy with palish green skin and green hair styled in a mohawk, with what looked like two hooked blades on the sides of his face. The hairy boy upon the seeing the two walking towards them, he started to speak up.

"Hello there gentlemen. I am assuming you are here to see Mister Aizawa as well?" He said in a very polite and formal tone of voice that mentally threw Katsuki off guard, Fumikage however simply nodded to answer his question.

"I see, then forgive me if I seem forward. However are you two on-"

"Yeah...It's exactly what you think," Katsuki interrupted before turning away to not look him in the eyes.

"Ah...Yes I understand." The boy added in an apologetic tone. The lanky green haired boy however simply clicked his tongue in frustration and annoyance.

"What's your problem bug face?" Katsuki said facing the teen not liking the sudden attitude.

"Kamagiri please, there is no need for that. I apologize for him friend." The hairy boy interjected motioning toward his classmate.

"Sheheheh. Stop that Shishida, there's no need for apologize when I'm not going to be doing that shit for 1-A rivals." The boy commented with a wild grin, a comment that only served to get Katsuki's blood boiling.

"You want to starting something _**Bug Face**_?"

"Bakugou wait," Fumikage started to quickly try and diffuse the situation not wanting a repeat of the situation with Ryu.

The door suddenly opened with Shouta Aizawa standing there with his quirk active.

"In _now._" He said sternly as the tension broke as suddenly as it came when the four made their way inside.

"I hope your sakes that little spat of yours is the only thing I will see from any of you." He started, however before any of the boys could retort; Shouta continued.

"Look. I know you've all been briefed with your parents and or guardians so I am not going to waste my time or your time in repeating information you already know. However I do have to inform you since you are still on probation until the beginning of next month. You are forbidden from the following: Joining after school clubs, getting a part time job and joining the student council, the last one is especially notable since the first year class elections for class president and vice-president will be held tomorrow so your names will removed from the ballot."

All four students could fell the sting at being told this as serving on the council would always look good when Pros begin to scout them as school year continued.

Shouta sighed seeing the hurt and humiliation on the faces of his students.

"I know that this can be very frustrating and illogical given your records and yes gentlemen I have seen all of your records. And nothing there warranted the extremes that you are being subjected to in my opinion; through I won't deny that the anger management for you Bakugou and you as well Kamagiri would be a negative."

The blond and greenette looked at each other with narrowed eyes before turning away.

"Keep your noses clean and soon we'll be able to remove you from probation. However I do need to make one last thing clear. If you get removed from probation and then cause trouble shortly afterward, your probation will be reinstated and it will be extended by double the time. While I do not expect that to happen, but it is something I need to you all to understand."

The four boys remained silent making sure not to interrupt and that their teacher was finished.

"With any luck the recent changes in the public sphere may soon make this system pointless and we can drop it all together." Shouta said almost like if it was an afterthought.

"You are dismissed."

* * *

When Izuku arrived home after a long day the first thing he did was have himself a feast of a Katsudon that his mother had made as he was absolutely famished given the last minute given just how much his power he had to use just to land safely and nearly making himself black out again.

As he ate with Eri bouncing on his lap, his thoughts flooded with so many things that occurred today from the trial to Katsuki to even Ochako who was acting strange ever since they completed the trial. He wasn't sure if it was just exhaustion or something else as they had simply sat together quietly for the whole train ride over barely saying anything to each other the whole time.

"You okay Izuku?"

Izuku turned to look at his mom as she brought him back to reality, Izuku lowered his bowl and pondered for a moment thinking carefully before giving her an answer.

"Yeah, it was actually a really cool day, tiring but really cool. I mean I even got to wear my first hero costume!" Izuku began with a cheerful demeanor. "I think I'm just pretty tired from the first real test we had."

Inko smiled relieved to hear him say that, remembering her own time at UA with a chuckle.

"I can understand from my own time at UA. When your father..." And suddenly she trailed off, making the room suddenly go quiet. The anniversary of Hisashi's was approaching once again near the end of the month, as such this always made the mood much more somber in the household.

Eri looked at the two; seeing the sudden tone shift and sadness that now lined their faces she made her own effort to try and lighten the mood, she lightly poked Izuku in the chest making him look down at the child's bright red eyes before she gave him the biggest hug she could manage.

Izuku smiled; grateful for the sudden affection, he slowly placed down his bowl to gently return the hug back.

"Thank you Eri." He whispered to her, once was she was satisfied Eri hopped off Izuku's lap and ran up to Inko to do the same, it was a small gesture but something that Eri had clearly been able to learn and grasp the importance of, plus it turned out that she loved hugs and just about every form of positive affection.

As Inko doted on the white haired girl, sat there Izuku amazed it was the same girl he had found with Ochako just a little over a month ago. While she still never smiled, she was less jumpy and much more expressive, and much more lively, Izuku hoped that someday soon he could learn how to make her smile as her psychiatrist had pointed out that would be major point in her development. Izuku had even been reading up on the subject, which lead him to reading some research materials on parenting.

He felt his phone buzz and was about to answer it when his mom asked something very important, something that had completely slipped his mind.

"Izuku are you and Uraraka ready for tomorrow?"

Izuku paused his eyes going wide as he remembered what else he had needed to do today.

_'Oh crap...I forgot about taking we're taking Eri to school tomorrow...I forgot to ask Tokoyami to take pictures of him; IDIOT!' _Izuku sighed in frustration angry at himself forgetting something so important.

"I told the class and they did same okay with the idea, but I didn't get the picture..." Izuku answered in a bitter tone.

_'So much for making Eri a priority.'_

"I see, that's okay honey it happens. You'll simply just need to be extra careful when you try to introduce her to everyone slowly." Inko reassured her son as she held Eri in her arms. "I'm going to get Eri ready for bed okay?"

"Yeah...thanks mom." Izuku said while looking down at his bowl the remaining uneaten Katsudon, his appetite leaving him as he felt like he had let Eri down.

_'How could I have forgotten about that?'_

At the moment he felt his phone buzz again, remembering that he had gotten an earlier message he finally pulled out his phone and saw a notification from Ochako. He opened the chat with her and to his surprise and amazement a number of different pictures of one Fumikage Tokoyami inside of the base. A message from Ochako followed the pictures.

Occhan: _Hey Izuku sorry about being so quiet after school. I had a lot on my mind from the battle trial and I kind of needed some time to myself ya know? _

_Please tell Eri I'm sorry that I wasn't able to come visit. _

_I knew that you trying to ask Tokoyami for the pictures back during lunch, but I got the chance to ask him during the trial while we were waiting to head out. It was actually just like your mom said! He did have experience with accidentally scaring kids before so he was...I guess I would say happy to help? Anyways, I'll be swing by a little early tomorrow to help prep Eri for school tomorrow, see ya then!_

Izuku couldn't help but feel grateful to Ochako who had come to his rescue, making up where he had fallen short, he endeavored to correct this and do much better next time, but at least this did secure on thing in his mind.

'_I'm not alone in this.' _

His appetite returing en masse as he started to eat once again feeling much better about the situation.

* * *

_**Eri walked hand-in-hand with Izuku and Ochako. Izuku carried a large basket filled with yummy food, while Ochako carried a large blanket as they walked to find the perfect spot to start their picnic. They walked past emerald green fields, gigantic mountains with snowy tops, and a great big tree with a its crown hidden in clouds. **_

"_**This seems like a perfect spot!" Ochako proclaimed with her trademark arm pump that straight up as they arrived by large lake with crystal clear waters that mirrored sky, save for the ducks that graced the surface with only the tiniest of ripples hinting at their movement. **_

_**"You're right Ochako this is the best spot!" Izuku cheered mirroring Ochako's gesture, all while Eri looked at the two with some confusion and yet she started to feel this strange warm sensation in her heart every time she was with them.**_

_**As the set up the blanket and broke out the food, Eri looked around wishing everyday could be like today, sunny but not hot, cool but not cold, with yummy food and with the two who had helped her. Her thoughts returned to the bunny in the picture book, of the albino bunny with a family. And for a moment Eri thought no dared to ask, to speak out what she truly wanted to say. "Mama," she wanted to call Ochako and "Papa," she wanted to call Izuku, as they were the ones who had saved her, who had always made her feel safe. She wanted them to be her family. **_

"_**OnLy ThEy aRe NoT YoUr FaMlIy eRi." A cold voice said behind her making Eri freeze, the warm feeling in her heart, went cold as though an icy hand had suddenly gripped it. **_

"_**No..." She spoke ever so quietly slowly turning her head trembling with fear, a fear that she had been found by Him.**_

_**"What's wrong Eri?" Izuku asked with a worried look on his face.**_

_**"Are you okay Eri? Are you tired?" Ochako asked sitting closer to Eri embracing her to try and ease her fears. Eri however continue to look out for him. For Kai Chisaki the man who had been the ruler of her nightmares for a long as she could remember. **_

"_**I'm scared Mama," Eri said tearfully to Ochako grabbing on to her as hard as she could. **_

"_**What of Eri?" Ochako responded doing her try and ease her worries. **_

"_**Of me." The voice said again however it sounded much closer to Eri and in an instant Ochako and Izuku disappeared, only to reappear right in front of her with faces that looked they didn't have a care in the world, and standing right behind them...was him. Eri sat there in horror as Overhaul began reaching for the two of them hands ungloved, Eri couldn't call out, she couldn't breathe, all she could do was watch the nightmare unfold before her; knowing what was going to happen next. **_

"_**I will always find you Eri, you accursed little bitch. And for your punishment a reminder of what happens to those who defy me." **_

_**Finally Eri let out a scream.**_

* * *

Izuku's eyes snapped open the moment it happened. The instant she started screaming Izuku leaped out of his bed and made his way to Eri's side; finding her thrashing wildly in her bed screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Eri! Eri it's okay!" Izuku spoke out; grabbing a hold of her like the psychiatrist had taught him.**** It wasn't as common as before, but Eri would still have night terrors from time to time and knew he simply had to ride out the storm. After a few minutes her breathing steadied and slowly returned to normal, her eyes snapped open; revealing those bright ruby eyes that were now swimming in tears.

"It's okay Eri, it was just a dream." Izuku quietly reassured her, as holding her as firmly and as gently as he could while rubbing her back.

"T-tt-the bbbired peo-pel-people...took eme aga-again..." She managed to say as she cried, before latching on to Izuku as tightly as could before continuing."Th-they kil-led you and mama..."

Izuku's mind went blank as he heard the word, _**"Mama."**_ And wondered if Eri was finally starting to see his own mother as her mom, which would make him a big brother a title he definitely wouldn't mind having.

"Izuku do you have it covered sweetie?" He heard his mother say behind his door.

"Yeah mom. I've got it...no problem." He answered back, before hearing her footsteps fade away.

"Eri..." Izuku thought very hard on what he should do next, when an idea formed in his head as he saw Ochako's book on his desk. He carefully sat Eri up, wondering if this was the best course of action. "Can I show you something very important? It's one of my greatest secrets that not even Ochako knows about it and it's the secret that will make sure I will always keep you safe." He said as Eri looked at him a bit confused on what he meant, before Izuku continued speaking.

"Eri what I am going to show you...well it can look a little scary, but it's part of how I fight, how I use my quirk to protect people. You know how Ochako can make you float?"

Eri nodded remembering all the times Ochako would play with her using her quirk.

"You've never seen my quirk yet have you?"

She paused thinking about it for a moment when she realized that he was right and shook her head.

Izuku slowly took off his shirt, before focusing; he began to glow and with a quick flash of light Izuku shifted into his light armor. Eri looked surprised but didn't seemed scared at all by Izuku's sudden more scaly appearance as he had light green scales that now covered most of his body shining polished steel, his eyes had warming glow to them now.

"This is my quirk...my power..." Izuku looked at Eri right in the eyes. "My armor. It's what I will use to protect people. Like how Jin does in the story book." Izuku said pointing at the book on his desk.

"Like Fafnir?" Eri asked.

Izuku gave her a smile and answered with, "Yep like The Fafnir Knight..."

Izuku slowly raised his clawed hand to Eri, using it to gently wipe away some of the tears away while Eri reach forward slowly to feel the scales on his shifted arm. She could feel the weight and a great power hidden under them. Just like Izuku said, he was like Jin from the storybook, someone who can turn to a brave knight to fight bad guys away. He was her Fafnir Knight a thought that eased her mind if only for a while.

"I promise you Eri. Bird people or otherwise. I will always do my best to protect you, and I know that Ochako and everyone else in the Hero course at UA would protect you too. We want to be heroes to use our power to save people just like you." Izuku swore to her. She looked at him no longer crying, but still had a light hiccup.

"But...there is something else Eri. I need you to protect me too. As there are people who would be scared of me, just how you are of the bird people; because of my quirk."

Eri grasped; she couldn't believe anyone would be scared of Izuku, as he had always been so nice and polite, how could anyone be scared of him?

"No." She said firmly with a small pout an action that actual surprised Izuku."You are nice...nothing like them."

"Then can you promise me something please Eri? Please don't tell Ochako about my power...she doesn't know yet, but I am planning on telling her soon." He pleaded to her, knowing that everyday only increased the chance of exposure; Izuku had finally decided to tell her on his own terms. After Eri's evaluation that when he would tell her to let her know one of his greatest secrets.

Eri looked puzzled again, because just like how Jin was like Izuku, Ochako was like the princess in the story book; like Arianna. "Chako likes you, she wouldn't be scared of you."

Izuku's face despite being partly covered in green scales, he still turned a deep shade of red by Eri's comment, but did help making him feel a bit more reassured about his choice.

"Umm...I'm not sure about that just yet. But you promise me Eri just for now?"

Eri looked at him for a moment before nodding.

"Thank you Eri." He said giving the little girl the biggest smile he could muster, only to see her fidget around with her hands like if she had a question. "Ummm, "

"Yes Eri?" Izuku asked seeing the pleading look in her eye.

"Can I please sleep with you tonight please?" Izuku knew this was coming and wasn't surprised by the request as every other time she had a night terror like this, she would immediately request to sleep him or Ochako afterward.

"Okay Eri." He said as he shifted back into his normal form and put his shirt back on, he lifted her up slowly and moved her to his bed. He tucked her in first, before climbing in next to her. Eri quickly latched on to him as he finally settled in with a few moments Izuku started to gently patted her hair slowly lulling her back to sleep.

"Good night Eri." Izuku whispered to her, giving her horn a small kiss, and settled back to sleep.

* * *

**Author's Commentary**

Tenya's red eyes*: In the manga Tenya Iida actually has blood red pupils that was changed in the anime version; I changed them back to red for story reasons.

Sleep Apena**: A real thing in which someone's brain can actually forget to automatic progress of breathing while you sleep. (Yours truly has some personal experience with this and it is scary as fuck)

Uniforms***: So one thing that always kind of drives me nuts (being a former cadet from a JROTC school) is how one can tell one year group from another with no changes to unforms. One thing I noticed in both the manga and anime is that there very tiny differences in school uniforms based on either year group or course group.

One example is Hitoshi Shinsou's uniform (watch the anime or read the manga and you'll see what I mean.) On his uniform jacket, you can see a gold pin on his shoulder boards, a detail that isn't on any of the Hero course uniforms. So I made some tiny changes to uniform to point out year group and course group, along with special positions (class rep, vice-rep, liasion etc.) Just one of those things to add a small attention to detail.

Night terrors****: I actually consulted a few psychtrists I happen to know for this story (as I didn't want to write something that may not be medically recommended) waking up people/children who are experincing night terrors and if it is okay to try and wake them. And they all almost basically the same thing; while it is better to let them calm down on their own; in certain cases like if someone who could have breathing or heart issues; it might be better to wake them early to avoid straining the heart and or lungs.

Now to address two reviews that have some story focused points I needed to address. First I do not take requsts to do specific things for this story, I am open to suggestions but not straight requests. In the case of** Hankflamion18**; One of the reasons, I can't address that yet is because it will bite me in the ass, if I do it now. Plus Neither Ochako nor Katsuki would be able to call out Izuku for his behavior, because in this story they had both done the same thing.

Ochako risked her life to save Jou's during the exam and Katsuki risked his life to save a kid during the sludge villain incident, if they called him out on it; it would come out to be hypocritial. The same kind of applies to All Might; as for Eraserhead while he did give a warning for any more be martyrs in the class, it will utlimately be Midnight to choose how to deal with this as she is their homeroom teacher (I will be address this issue later down the line, once a repeated pattern of behavior is observed like it would in real life) The KIAs will also be addressed with the indivdiual reports and we will see small sinps of these in the next chapter. I please ask to let me address the consquences of any story events or behaviors myself, when the story warrants it.

**Beast King Achilles:** I can only say no, Izuku's biological paternal grandfather is already a set character (Read _**Draco Knight**_ for details) and this isn't real a spoiler for that story, but that man is dead...like super dead. (Mind you I had to look up the character, because I am largely unfamiliar with One Piece.) HOWEVER There is something very funny about the title _The Four Emperors_; and all I can say is that there is something akin to them in this series and that there is some relation to with that to Hisashi and by extension Izuku.

That is all for now everyone: _**Chapter XX: Infiltration**_ will be out as soon as I can finish it, but since we are officially caught up. I will be returning to a more routine 7-10 day upload schedule, but it could be shorter or longer depending on the size of the chapter.

Until next time and as always with lots of love.

_**-X**_


	20. Infiltration

I wanted to finish this by July 4th, but it wasn't happy with the chapter just yet. So I took a couple more days to make it something I was much happier with.

I am also pleased to say that we will be having a new _**Draco Knight**_ chapter soon;most likely after either _**Chapter XXII**_ or _**XXIV**_ depending on how the story flows, but for those of you who keep an eye on both you'll be getting a double dose of this story soon.

The next chapter will be short, but it will be the final chapter that will lead us directly into the USJ. I needed this chapter as a buffer to help lay down a few things that will come up soon.

Hope you enjoy the chapter.

-X

* * *

Reviews!

_**patrickthenobleman**_: Thanks for the heads up! I know that no matter how many times I read something, I'm always going miss something! I managed to correct a number of the mistakes but I still might have missed a few here and there. And...Spoilers that is all I can say on the last part.

_**Hypernova: **_Well that sucks ass, but thankfully this week wasn't too bad at my job, so I had a bit more time to devote to this.

_**HankFlamion18**_: We cool man. I'm just hoping that you understand, that I had my own issues with how canon addresses or lacked addressing as well and I will being address those issues as they come.

_**Ooobserver: **_Insomnia tends to be my Achilles heel when I end up with little sleep and I'm always flattered to hear that it this one of your most anticipated stories.

_**D3lph0xL0v3r: **_I don't think the impact will be that grating on our heroes. It is the time to rebuilding them up to be stronger and better prepared for the horrors to come. As for Ryu, I think you may be a just a bit confused on his role here, but this chapter should address what his role is here.

_**JaxTheKnight2319: **_I happen to like _**Family Matters **_By _**AnimeFan299110**_ and it was always my goal for this to become a thing in this story. In the earlier version I made a mistake in hindsight and rushed it and I could have taken a bit more time to flesh this out and make it a bit more natural in the long run.

_**moonstar31548:** _The exam and the most of the classwork onward is meant to help the student grow after all! And..spoilers. And yes we all hope for Eri's to be free from Overhaul's grip forever.

_**Jmm1: **_Wow a Ryu fan? I'm kind of surprised! But yes my goal for Ryu's integration was to be more subtle than most OC's from who tend to be shoved into the limelight, by either being fast friends with Izuku or being an OP loner edgelord type. It's been done to death and given his role, he is more of a background character that will grow. But he is still a character with his own plans, goals and ideals. As for Katsuki...ummm No that is not going to happen. That age gap is a bit too wide for me to be cool writing, but it is in preparing for the future relationships we will see Katsuki go with in the time to come.

_**inFamousSlyMonkey**_: It has it's ups and downs, but this was calmer week by comparison. So we good.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc II: The Incident**_

_**Chapter XX: Infiltration. **_

* * *

_**"Spies go undercover. They take on different personas."**_

_**-David Leitch**_

* * *

The room was dimly lit gathered here was a number of villains who would help take part in the assault of UA. Including a few extra guests Tomura invited. While many were being tended by Kurogiri serving his role as bartender faithfully. Tomura Shigaraki was upstairs on the phone with his dear brother.

"I got word that media is planning a feeding frenzy to try and catch All Might at UA. This is the perfect time for you gather key information."

"_Yeah, I have good idea where the teacher's lounge is now and who's desk I need to raid for the information...the special deodorant was a nice touch, you sure it will work on Nezu and Hound Dog?" _

"Had it tested on a number of the villains with advanced senses of smell; got a deal on it via The Union."

_"Look at you Tomura! You upgraded your speech skill then?" _

"Shut-up."

"_Anyway I may run into some trouble in there." _

"I'll be there to cover your escape if needed."

"_Surprised you would."_

"Isn't this what an older brother should do?"

"_Rrrrright...then, I'm going to destroy this phone now, what's the location of the next dead drop?" _

"Same as before."

"_Predictable." _

"The next drop should be a day after tomorrow, after which you'll give your update based on what you find."

_"Until then brother." _

"Until then." Tomura repeated both hanging up the phone, only to fully gripping the phone with his left hand. Once the phone was nothing but dust, he made his way downstairs to join the rest of his guests. The room which only had a rumble of conversation only to suddenly go quiet the instant Tomura appeared walking downstairs. It was time for the meeting to begin.

"I assume you have all drunken your fill my friends?" Tomura called out to the small crowd who turn simply laughed, once he reached the bottom of the stairs he continued. "As you all know my dear friends, that we are gathered here to plan our assault on UA to kill that garage pro that everyone knows as the _'Symbol of Peace'_."

Many in the crowd began booing and hissing at the mention of All Might, Tomura undeterred continued his little speech; loathing being in the presence of those he would rule once the master's power of his. They all meant nothing to him, but he would have deal with them for now. "Along with killing All Might, we would also shatter the perception that the so called _'great' _halls of UA are not as safe as once believed."

"However my dear friends! I have special offer! A bonus if you will!" Tomura began knowing that he could get rid of his retched rival with this small addition to the plan. "Among the students are a few who have nice bright yellow eyes, I'm something of a collector for these golden eyes. So I'm offering a bounty anyone who kills a student with these kind of eyes and brings me back proof, do this and you'll get double the original offer, and I'll even triple or even quadruple the amount for every additional student you kill with these types of eyes."

The small mob cheered with some of them almost drooling at the prospect of all the money that could be theirs at the small costs of killing a couple of kids. Kurogiri however simply stood there; he knew what Tomura was planning. It was a clever way to target his brother without giving his position or identity away, everyone would be hunting students with golden eyes, even ones who aren't Tomura's target. So even if they're caught it would only possibly narrow him down to the suspect list. Still while aligned to Tomura per his master's orders. He wasn't allowed to make a direct move to assist in any of Tomura's plans to kill his brother, something Tomura didn't know and it would prefer to keep it that way; having long developed a soft spot for all of the heirs of darkness that had come and gone throughout the years.

He watched as Tomura rallied the troops as two unique guests sat in the room among them silent and observing the scene unfold in front of them. The first sipped away with some sake was Overhaul looking over everyone else with the faintest hint of disgust etched behind his beak like mask. The second who only drank water was an infamous assassin from the underworld hired especially to deal with Tomura's secondary target.

Kurogiri knew one thing; Tomura had better hope that his brother dies during the attack, because should he survive he would then be entitled to an act of retribution by the Master, a risky gamble to Tomura as the Master could then grant his brother a boon; a new quirk, resources, or even the life of another if he so pleased as time proved over and over again. After all it is how Tomura received his second quirk; his paralyzing eyes.

As Kurogiri began wiping away glasses that were being returned to him; the meeting finally coming to an end. He could not help but wonder when the final clash would happen. He knew it had to be soon, the master was only getting weaker, the battle that had crippled him had left him far weaker than originally thought of, he knew that every soon a new master would be crowned soon and a new Era would begin.

One ruled by Tomura or by...?

* * *

Ochako was busy getting Eri dressed in Inko's room, as Izuku was currently getting dressed after just stepping out of the shower moments earlier, while Inko was busy in the kitchen making lunch for trio, and prepping a few extra snacks for Eri as her pediatrician had recommended. Eri had successfully achieved a healthy weight, but still had a few deficiencies when it came to certain vital nutrients; such as iron.

After a couple different tries Ochako finally settled on what she considered to be a perfectly adorable outfit for Eri to wear.

"There all done! What do you think Eri?" Ochako chirped happily looking over her handy work, while motioning Eri to look at herself at nearby mirror. Eri was dressed in a white long sleeved shirt with a dark overalls with wearing striped leggings and white-pink sneakers, topped off with a little red bow in her hair. Eri could feel that same warmth again in her heart, being able to wear such nice and comfy clothes; it made her feel good. Eri looked up at the brown haired girl, one she had called _"Mama"_ in her dream, yet she couldn't, not after the nightmare she had...not so long as _**He**_ was still out there. Finally after a moment or two deep in her thought, Eri simply gave Ochako a quick nod to voice her approval of the outfit.

"I knew you'd like it." Ochako exclaimed punching the air; relieved that Eri seemed to like in the outfit. However now Ochako need to confirm something else with the child. "Hey Eri?"

Eri looked at Ochako again who was now squatting down to her eye level.

"Are you sure that you're okay coming with us?" She asked concerned as she didn't want Eri to feel forced into doing this if she wasn't ready. While they had made some real progress in taking her outside, that was only for short hour long trips at most; this would take up almost the whole day. Eri looked at Ochako, having been very nervous especially after Izuku had finally shown her the picture of Fumikage, but after he had sworn up and down that while Fumikage was a bit strange, he was friendly. Something that did help ease her fears, after all even Katsuki had stopped being so scary to her after a while.

"Mhm!" Eri answered with a more firm nod, trying to find a bit more courage knowing that Ochako and Izuku would be with her.

"Oh Good." Ochako said with some relief before giving the little girl a hug."Just remember just be sure to stay with me or Izuku during class. Remember to be polite and only interrupt class if you need something okay? And if you are extra good, I'll be just sure to give you a few extra treats."

"Apple?" Eri asked with a bit of hope shining in her bright ruby eyes.

"Yep! I know how much you love them," Ochako said brightly. Eri didn't smile, but the look in her eyes reflected some of the happiness she was feeling.

"Is Kacchan coming?" She asked, Katsuki had started allowing Eri to address him that way; Ochako however was swiftly rejected with sass and a brief return to her old moniker of _**"Round-face" **_when she had tried herself. Before Ochako could answer Eri however, she was interrupted by Inko who had finished getting dressed and entered the room to check up on them.

"Hey guys you already to g-..." Izuku said appearing at the doorway with his mother before spotting Eri in her new outfit.

"Oh my goodness! She looks perfect!" Inko exclaimed as she couldn't help but gush seeing the snow haired child; pulling out her cellphone and proceeding to take a few pictures of her.

"Yep, very cute." Izuku responded with a big smile before patting Eri on the head as he turned to face Ochako. "So are you guys all ready to go?"

"I'm ready and Eri says she's ready too." Ochako answered, as Inko motioned for the trio to follow her to the kitchen.

"And I just got breakfast ready!" She said as she began lining up the table with plates of food as everyone else sat down.

"Thanks for the food!" The group said together before digging in, it was a simple and short affair as Izuku and Ochako preferred eating light. They had almost finished eating when the door bell started to ring.

"Oh, I wasn't expecting any guests, hold on a moment." Inko said with a puzzled look on her face, rising up from her seat and made her way to the front entrance. The trio look at each other puzzled, could it have been Katsuki coming by early as well?

"Izuku! Uraraka! Eri! You have a visitor!" Inko said returning with some paperwork in her hands and a familiar face walking behind her.

"Hello everyone, I hope you have all been well?" Said Naomasa Tsukauchi bowing to them, as everyone else looked surprised, but were not displeased by his appearance.

"We've been good sir, but may I ask what you are doing here?" Izuku asked with a slightly false tone of politeness; while knowing the Naomasa was trusted by All Might, Izuku was still having trouble of trusting any police officer. Especially since his mother still didn't know the truth of the cover up.

"I had to drop off a few things for your mother to look over." He answered while motioning to Inko who was currently reading over said paperwork. "Nothing serious just a quick report I needed to turn in to her, but I thought since my station is along the way to UA and I know the little miss is still a bit skittish in public, I wouldn't mind offering to give you guys a lift to school."

"Oh! Are you sure?" Izuku said with a look a new look of surprise that was shared by Ochako.

Naomasa smiled."I wouldn't be offering if I wasn't."

Naomasa had been serving as the go-between Inko and Toshinori and was the Detective-in-charge of Eri's case. Therefore he also got the same progress reports as All Might.

"I reasoned that, maybe public transport maybe a little much for the little lady this early. Let her get used to crowds at UA and it should be easier for you when you return on the tram after school. Besides you may need the extra time to get the little miss a school guest pass right?"

Izuku looked at Ochako who didn't seem to have an issue with the offer and left Izuku feeling just a tad bit guilty for his earlier thoughts.

"Okay then!" Izuku answered as he rose from his seat and gathered the plates from the table, while Ochako help Eri off her seat.

"Excellent shall we go then?" Naomasa asked looking at his watch.

Izuku quickly double-checked everything over with Ochako and Eri making sure they had everything needed, before answering.

"Yes sir."

The trio said their good-byes to Inko, before making their way to Naomasa's car. As Eri was helped being seated by Izuku as she sat between the two teens in the backseat. She eased into the seat holding both their hands, as the car came to life with a light rumble.

* * *

The car ride was short and uneventful as Eri got to taken in some of the sights via the windows,with Izuku or Ochako commenting or pointing things out to her when she had a question. It was a welcoming turn for Eri opening up and talking a bit more often, even if it was only to those she trusted.

"We're here." Naomasa said as the car pulled up to UA's entrance; the three quickly got out of the car as not to waste the Detective's time.

"Thank you very much sir."The two teens said in unison while bowing respectfully to the Detective.

"T-t-thank you..." Eri repeated mimicking her surrogate parents movements.

"You're very welcome have a good day and stay safe." Naomasa responded with a small smile.

"We will sir!" Ochako chirped, and with that Naomasa drove away as the trio entered the UA front office to get Eri her pass. When they entered Izuku stopped the two just before reaching the receptionist's desk.

"Hey Ochako?" Izuku called to her with a familiar determined look on his face.

"Something wrong?" asked Ochako a bit puzzled by Izuku sudden confidence.

"No, but there is something I need to take care of first that could help make things easier, can I meet you and Eri in the classroom?"

Ochako looked at the boy, before looking down at Eri again. "You sure it's nothing bad?"

"Nothing bad, just an idea I've had since last night that I know could help Eri." Izuku answered before patting Eri's head, after failing to get Fumikage's pictures, he hoped this little plan would make up for it.

"Alright. I'll get Eri to class, just try to be there before us to not make Eri worried promise?" Ochako said with a playful tone.

"I promise. I'll see you guys soon." Izuku swore before walking out the door leaving Ochako and Eri at the office. Ochako quickly scooped up Eri. A tiny bit disappointed that Izuku had left them there, but also happy that she had a moment to make-up for some lost time with Eri, given that she didn't visit her last night like she had originally planned.

"Good morning! I'm here to claim a guest pass for my friend, for a quirk evaluation." Ochako stated to the receptionist.

"Name please?" The receptionist asked.

"Eri, Midoriya household." Ochako answered, as the receptionist began to click away on his computer.

"Ah yes, Mr. Yagi had everything all set-up earlier just one second, here we go!"

"Thank you!" Ochako said cheerfully grabbing the pass that hanged on a lanyard from the man. Carefully clipping the pass around Eri's neck.

"Now we need to be extra careful with that pass okay Eri?"

Eri simply nodded before taking Ochako's hand and began their journey to Class 1-A. Eri marveled at the school. From the pretty trees to all the different students that attended the school. This was UA she had been told, where people from all over the world come to become Pro-heroes, she knew even Pro-heroes like Anima and Comicman from her favorite TV show had attended UA when they were teenagers.

It wasn't long before Ochako decided to carry Eri the rest of the way to avoid her becoming worn out from all the walking, yet it wasn't long when she started getting strange looks from some of the other students. Ochako simply answered with a glare of her own as she could see that some of the stares they were getting was starting to make Eri a bit uncomfortable and shy away from their view. Thankfully many of the students stopped their stares; taking the hint to stop thanks to Ochako's rather threatening aura.

When they arrived by the entrance of Class 1-A's homeroom, they where called out by a familiar voice.

"Ah that's where you are, hey there little Unicorn you all set?" At duo turned to see Katsuki walking up to them having arrived not to long ago.

"Hello Kacchan." Eri said softly which Katsuki answered with a small wave.

"Good thing you guys got here early, a bunch of news crews just arrived and where being a real pain in the as...to everyone." Katsuki stopped himself from his usual method of speech, something that he had picked up on quickly, after being around Eri long enough, only to realize that Izuku wasn't with them.

"Where's Izuku?" He asked Ochako.

"He should be inside, he said he needed to do something and left us to meet him here." Ochako answered, hoping that Katsuki would know what Izuku was doing.

Katsuki simply grunted in response; he did know what Izuku was up to, as he had received a text earlier this morning from him, only he wasn't expecting him to go a head of the two girls.

"Come on," Katsuki said opening the door for the two. Walking in they were greeted by Izuku's voice.

"Perfect timing!"

They turned and saw Izuku standing next to Fumikage who in turn was seated at his desk. Almost everyone else in the class went silent as they saw Eri for the first time, they had all been informed on Izuku's plan and kept silent to avoid stressing Eri out. Upon seeing Fumikage, Eri quickly turned away to avoid looking at him, her nerves slowly beginning to tremble, Ochako quickly began rubbing her back to ease her fears. She was about to speak when Izuku simply motioned to her not to say anything yet, as he began walking to them, while Fumikage slowly arose from his seat with a small plan of action thanks to Izuku's advice.

"Eri," Izuku said softly, making the little girl slowly turn her head to see Izuku now standing right next to her, with Fumikage still remaining a respectful distance until she was ready. "Remember what I promised you yesterday?"

She slowly nodded before looking at Fumikage. Izuku slowly motioned for him to join them. Fumikage slowly up walked to the trio.

"Hello there Eri. My name is Fumikage Tokoyami, I apologize if my visage frightens you. I understand you seem to have some kind of aversion to birds am I correct?"

Eri gave the boy puzzled expression as if she was confused by the bird-boy's vocabulary.

"He's saying that he knows you are scared of birds." Izuku quickly told her.

And with that she paused for a moment before slowly nodding in response.

"I hope that you.*cough* Know that I mean you no harm and offer you this, I believe you enjoy these yes?" Fumikage said trying to simplify his vocabulary; kneeling down to her level and slowly presenting an bright red apple to Eri.

"For me?" She asked a hopeful tone finally speaking to the boy who scared her.

"Yes for you. I actually like apples too, they are my favorite fruit." Fumikage answered back as gently as he could.

Eri looked at the apple, then at two her surrogate parents and then back to Fumikage. With a small nod of encouragement, she took the apple from Fumikage hands before saying.

"T-t-thank you." She finally seemed to breathe.

Fumikage hummed for a moment before giving her a rare smile.

"It was my pleasure." He said slowly rising up and returning to his seat.

Izuku and Ochako both could see that Eri still seemed a bit wary of the bird-faced boy, but that fact that her breathing was more relaxed was great progress. It was a huge sigh of relief for all of them.

"Nice one," Katsuki whispered out to Izuku.

"Just doing what I can," Izuku answered sheepishly.

As the rest of the class began to fill up, Katsuki had taken the liberty to inform everyone who entered, especially Mina and Tooru when they arrived, not to immediately swarm the girl and to approach her slowly, if they want to say hi.

When Denki arrived and spotted his friends; his golden eyes widened seeing his friend Ryu.

"Morning guys...damn Kasei you look dead today man. "

The boy looked at Denki with dark bags under his own golden eyes.

"Ye-yeah...after getting schooled by Hadou yesterday, I kind of decided to up my training, with my...dad." Ryu answered with groan, it was a partial truth. He had been training with Kai last night, but not because of his defeat with Nejire, but in preparation for his new task. Ryu had to admit, despite the man's age. He could still move surprising fast and hit like a truck.

* * *

As the bell rang and class began and quick introduction to Eri later. Homeroom began without too much incident, until Nemuri made the announcement.

"Well, I got the reports from the battle trials and despite Mr. Aizawa's efforts you all managed to pass and impress given the conditions. Excellent work everyone." She said while giving proud smile to her homeroom class, pleased that her class had gotten to rub it in Shouta's face.

"Now it is time for something a little more fun~. It is time for you to pick your class officers! That is right! It is time to pick your class president and vice-president." She exclaimed, fighting her instinct to crack out, a whip, riding crop and or a cat o' nine tails to avoid scaring Eri. Only for that concern to be rendered moot, as most of the class suddenly came to life realizing what was at stake. Unfortunately the suddenly flurry of noise did end up scaring Eri, who quickly covered her ears, and hid her face into Izuku's chest.

Katsuki being Katsuki, quickly took charge as Izuku and Ochako quickly both moved to calm Eri down.

"Pipe down! You're scaring the Unicorn!" He roared, making the class go silent while getting a few laughs for the adorable pet nickname, and small flood of apologizes followed swiftly.

"Thanks Kacchan..." Izuku said a lowered voice, had he continued to gentle ease Eri's nerves.

"Ribbit isn't a bit early for a class election?" Tsuyu asked suddenly to break the silent and her confusion.

"Compared to normal schools, it is but this isn't your normal school now is it? I am very sure you all got to see some of your classmates in positions of leadership yesterday." Nemuri answered, "I believe you had Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, Seikigai and Baku- " Nemuri coughed as she remembered his status. "Bakugou serving as operators or assisting with operators which warrants quite a bit of trust."

Katsuki had flinched when Midnight had mentioned him preferring to keep his probation out of the public sphere so he decided then and there to speak up.

"Leave me out of the ballot. I'm not interested in the job." Katsuki lied, believing this may be the only way to keep his secret.

"Whoa man, but you did a good job yesterday!" Eijirou exclaimed puzzled by the explosive boy's decision.

"Kacchan why are yo-" Izuku began but was cut off.

"I'm not interested in doing extra work. I can become number one without needing to be a rep." Katsuki answered swiftly.

"I'm afraid I would like to request the same Ms. Kayama." Fumikage also spoke up seeing what Katsuki did and followed up in kind. "Please do not consider me for the voting process."

Nemuri quickly nodded in an effort to spare the two boys any chance of humiliation of possibly revealing their probationary statuses.

"If that is the case does anyone else wish to exclude themselves from the vote? If so please raise your hands now," she asked the remainder of the class. A few students including Ryu, Eijirou and Rikidou raised their hands.

"Right so that leaves the following candidates," Nemuri said as she began writing down names of the remaining candidates for the classroom leadership.

* * *

Izuku Midoriya

Tenya Iida

Momo Yaoyorozu

Kashiko Sekigai

Denki Kaminari

Tsuyu Asui

Mashiraou Ojirou

Mina Ashido

Yuga Aoyama

* * *

"Okay we will vote and in the case of ties, names with less votes will be removed from the ballot." Nemuri said, before the vote began.

The class didn't take long to vote, with the announcement made just as quickly.

"And with that the tallies are in. Your President will be Izuku Midoriya and his V.P. will be Momo Yaoyorozu." Nemuri said welcoming a nervous looking Izuku and crestfallen Momo to the podium, Izuku handing Eri to Ochako before coming up.

Momo sighed believing herself unworthy to be there, she was sure if Katsuki had been on the ballot, that he could have easily been elected in her place or even could have been the representative himself with Izuku serving as his deputy. With a few claps and cheers the two newly elected representatives returned to their seats. The vote wasn't much of a landslide, but one person felt an extra sting.

Tenya sat there gritting his teeth, as he sat there in disbelief.

"Zero votes...surely I could have even gathered even one...mean you voted for me right Shout-" He said before seeing his best friend slowly turning his head to avoid the hurt look of his friend's face. Shouto did feel a bit guilty, but felt that Tenya still came out just a tad bit too strong for a rep position, not to mention that he felt that Momo needed the confidence boost after been so shaken up yesterday.

* * *

Most of the day went by without to much issue until lunch. As everyone ate, a few of the girls _mainly Mina_ finally decided to swooped in and finally get a chance to really meet and speak with Eri, who's horn caught her interest immediately add poor Eijirou standing by to make sure she didn't go overboard with their new "Horn buddy".

As some new friends had been made, a new set of seating arrangements had started up;what surprised Izuku however was seeing a rather sad looking Minoru who was seemingly eating alone, seeing that Ochako had decided to handle Eri at lunch today with her small pocket of fans. He went to Minoru to make sure he was doing okay, one out of genuine concern, but also trying to take his newly found duty as class president seriously.

"Hey Mineta you alright?" He asked approaching the short boy.

Minoru looked up at Izuku before sighing out his response.

"Yeah I'm good Midoriya."

"You sure? Where is Kaminari and Kasei?" Izuku added seeing neither of Minoru's friends there with him.

"I don't know where Kaminari is, but he did say that he had something important to take care of on the phone, and I took Kasei to Recovery Girl because he wasn't feeling well."

Izuku rattled his head for a moment before remembering that Ryu looked a bit more like Eraserhead earlier this morning.

"Oh right...he did look a bit under the weather."

"Yeah so now, I'm just eating here alone like in middle school..." he responded sadly. Izuku could relate since the only one who would ever hang out with him willingly was Katsuki. Izuku decided to help a classmate out.

"Do you want to join us?" He asked.

Minoru looked at Izuku almost stunned that he even offered.

"Y-you sure?"

"Yeah! You're trying to be a hero like us right? Even Midnight said that cooperation would be key for us, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends right?" He answered with a bright smile, that cheered Minoru up.

"Okay!" He piped up excitedly grabbing his food tray to join him.

* * *

"The votes are in and the results is a landslide in favor. The _"Companion Heroes" _bill will become law effective the first of next month." The Speaker of the House called out banging the gravel. "That concludes today's session. We will reconvene again at the next scheduled date. Thank you everyone."

Sir Nighteye sighed as he sat looking very pleased with the current result. It was a small victory added with the update Tensei had provided with the investigation. Kai may have instigated it, but it was Chief Kiriyuuin who would be handing the internal affairs investigation, having their man on the job may have brought a sigh of relief to everyone on the investigation. However Nighteye still had his doubts, it would be too easy, for Kai to slip up now. Even with this, they had all agreed to continue as normal just in case.

"Representative Miki, I'd like to speak with you...if you can spare a moment?" He heard the voice of an older gentleman speaking. Nighteye's head turned and was surprised to see the head of the Neocons himself, the man who had been holding sway in the Diet for the last seven years, Kai Doumeki's patron.

"Representative Anno...What do I owe the pleasure?" He said softly to keep an air of civility.

Hideyoshi Anno was a lifelong politician since his earliest days out of school, though his face now wrinkled and worn with only wisps of white hair on his head, he still held a mind that was sharp and clever. His brown eyes though tired, still had a vigor behind them, almost like an certain number one hero.

"I was wondering, if you would like to join me for lunch? I believe there is much we can discuss before the next session begins. All our work here is still in service to Japan and I believe we can still compromise on some additions toward another bill I am planning to propose."

Nighteye's expression didn't change, but his mind was racing with questions. It was odd move for to show one's hand like that especially to one of your greatest political opponents. What this a trick? Or something else? With the internal affairs investigation now in full swing, no doubt this man was trying to learn something. Nighteye was even tempted to use his quirk to see Hideyoshi's future, but knew that wouldn't be a good idea. Seeing the future in such a narrow scope can be a funny thing, could make one blind to what could just be the final result.

"I'm afraid, I must decline today sir. I have a few urgent meetings and a few personal matters that need my attention," Nighteye said as he stood up before giving the older gentleman a stiff bow.

"Ah, of course!" Hideyoshi laughed, as though he only just realized his mistake. "Forgive me, Miki. I should have checked over your schedule before asking, how rude of me."

Nighteye retained his demeanor not wanting to show any sign of his troubled thoughts.

"It is no trouble at all sir. Perhaps next time, I can make sure to make time in my schedule open for you sir."

"Yes, yes I certainly hope you can find some time soon. Well then, I should leave you be Miki, have a pleasant day." Hideyoshi finished lightly before finally walking away his cane making an obnoxious clap as he did.

Nighteye wasn't one for complete formalities, but Hideyoshi made a small mistake just now. He never returned the bow Nighteye gave, giving him a clear understanding on how Hideyoshi viewed him.

"So uncivilized," Nighteye said to himself. Before pulling out his phone and walking down the halls of the Lower House of Representatives. As he did however Nighteye could feel it something very didn't even need to turn around to know that he was being followed, how several pros who had been part of the investigation were being followed and watched.

If the investigation really was getting close, then this would mean that the net was closing in on both groups, now it simply a race to see who traps who first. However he also knew that they wouldn't dare try anything extreme right now, not with the ground be so shaky. If political assassinations started now. It will be just like Gran Torino said in their meeting at UA just after the last rounds of elections **about history repeating itself.**

* * *

He moved naturally but with a slight quicker step than normal, moving towards the teacher's lounge, checking his surroundings every few moments, making sure no one was there.

Everyone should be at lunch at the moment. The window of opportunity was narrow, but it wasn't the first time he had done something like this. Infiltrating to steal, plant, do recon or even assassinate a target without getting caught;today's job being recon tended to be the easiest in his opinion. When he arrived by the teacher's lounge, he first knocked in an effort to not look suspicious should anyone happen to be inside, or turning the corner at very moment.

When he got no answer, he slid the open door and saw it completely empty, and now came the most difficult and most dangerous part of the plan. He slipped in slowly shutting the door behind him.

_'Aizawa's desk. There should be a nametag on it.' _

He moved like a shadow swiftly and silently, eyes scanning every desk for his target. It wasn't long until he found it. Shouta Aizawa's desk was at the very end of the room, separated into a cubicle and while it had no name tag on it. It was without a doubt the zombieman's desk.

It was decked out with a few pictures with him and some colleagues, along few pictures with him being with one of the members of the Wild Wild Pussycats. The extra sleeping bag behind the desk also seemed to be a dead giveaway for the man. He quickly slipped on some disposable gloves and began to carefully began running through his desk and files.

_'Monthly schedule and classroom files...' _That's what he needed as the sweat was starting to form on his brow, this was the most dangerous part of a task like this, its apex.

_'Found the schedule...The USJ eh?' _He quickly pulled out his phone and took a clean picture of the schedule, taking a quick look for make sure all of the information was clear, he swiftly replaced the file and began looking for the next round of files. As he did however, he had to freeze as he swore he could hear footsteps getting closer. After a moment his heart dropped they were indeed getting closer and the voices that followed sounded like teachers...including Eraserhead himself.

_'Shit!'_

Quickly replaced the files making sure that everything was back in place and was about to try to sneak out when the door slid open. In an instant he dropped to the floor lying flat on his back as pulled out his phone with one fluid motion.

_'Plan B...DON'T FUCK UP TOMURA!'_

The text had been typed up a head of time, so all had to do was simply tap send and pray, a prayer that was answered only seconds later.

* * *

"_**WARNING INTRUDER ALERT!"**_ The school's P.A. system rang out and repeated.

Izuku and company sat there momentarily confused by the alarm as several senior students from other departments began to scramble for the exits. The alarms were loud; terrifying the snow haired girl. Izuku quickly scoped up Eri from her seat as almost everyone from Class A had gathered nearby, save Tenya and a couple others who had scrambled toward the exit as well.

"Everyone please calm down!" He hear the tall bluenette say.

Izuku seeing the discomfort in Eri's face, knew he had act quickly.

"With me everyone!" Izuku called out to the remainder of his classmates that were nearby as his brain quickly tried to figure out his next plan. He had a job to do as both the class representative and as Eri's guardian. He had everyone get closer to the exit but not close enough to get caught by the mob, when an idea came to mind.

"Ochako take Eri and make me float!" Izuku ordered, Ochako was about to ask why when she saw that familiar face; he had a plan. She quickly and gently grabbed the child, before tapping Izuku making him float above all of them. As he reached the ceiling he used his hands to move over everyone. He could hear Tenya still trying to get everyone into order, when he saw it; Katsuki had mentioned the media had been bothering people earlier this morning.

"Kacchan!" He called out to the blond while making a hand motion. Katsuki saw what Izuku was doing and understood what he was asking to do.

"Get back and cover your ears!" He barked out at his classmates; Ochako quickly covering Eri's ears and making herself turn away from the ash blond teen. Once cleared Katsuki raised his hand before letting out a few blasts from his quirk that ripped through the air. The explosion quickly caught everyone's attention letting Izuku to seize his chance.

"EVERYONE CALM DOWN! IT'S JUST THE MEDIA OUTSIDE!" He almost appeared to roar out, pointing to the windows."WE'RE ONLY MAKING THINGS WORSE BY PANICKING!"

His words seemed to break the spell over the mob as they heard his words.

"Look the cops are here!" Someone yelled out pointing toward the window and with that the mob slowly began to dissipate order restored. Izuku gave a sigh of relief. He didn't have much of a plan going in, but he needed to do something to help, something to make sure Eri didn't panic. Released from Ochako's quirk, Izuku landed only to be swept up by praise from some of his classmates.

"Manly taking action like that Midoriya, it's no wonder you ended up being class pres!" Eijirou exclaimed.

"Indeed I failed in trying to secure order in myself, but I guess that is why I voted for you, the better man did come out in the end." Tenya said with the fainted hint of bitterness in his voice.

"No guys! Come on! I just had to do something! If wasn't for Ochako being able to float me and Kacchan getting everyone's attention. I wouldn't have been able to do it!" Izuku said sheepishly, not being used to the sudden praise from his classmates, though he had to admit that it was a welcomed change compared to middle school.

"Heh and don't you forget it Izuku." Katsuki gave a small huff with pride.

While Ochako was happy to be acknowledged despite admitting that Izuku still did most of the leg work here. Still she couldn't help but be a bit peeved that today of all days had stuff like this going on. Eri needed a more relaxed environment and this was far from normal. Thankfully the rest of the day continued without incident, much to everyone's relief. At the end of the day as the class began to head out, an annoyed looking Minoru began to ask some probing questions to his blond friend.

"Kaminari! Where were you at lunch man!?" Minoru asked, remembering that Denki had come back late to class after lunch.

"Sorry man! Had to run to the bathroom when I was done. Did you know that the bathrooms get sealed up when the alarm goes off? Because I didn't and I was stuck in there until the all clear was given." He said with frustration.

"Then why didn't you text or call?"

"Oh that was easy. You remember that trick I showed you and Kasei yesterday?"

"How you charge your phone sometimes?"

"Yyyyeah...I kind of fried the sucker by accident trying to recharge it while panicking I was like around eight percent of juice left in the battery." He finished with a laugh holding up a rather blackened looking phone.

"Dude that's a different phone from the one back on your first day!" Minoru frowned at his friend's clear lack of mental prowess.

"It happens more often than I care to admit. Besides I'm covered! One of my uncle runs a cellphone store back in Saitama! Soooo I tend to get them on the cheap..._for the most part._"

"What?"

"Nothing!" He shuttered a bit, before looking at his other friend who was fast asleep on his desk. "Hey Kasei come on man! Time to go home! And get yourself from real sleep on your real bed!"

Ryu's response however was one loud and heavy snore.

* * *

Shouta Aizawa was taking the chance to lay down bundled up in his favorite sleeping bag in the middle of the gym floor, as the _"cinnamon roll trio" _ as Nemuri had dubbed them entered to begin Eri's evaluation. Between the media, and one of the blast doors being destroyed during the alarm, he was hundred percent done with today.

"Good afternoon sir." Izuku and Ochako said in unison while bowing to their teacher, with Eri doing the same moments later mimicking the two.

Shouta slowly got up and returned the gesture.

"Alright let's get straight to business." He began pulling a file out, from his pocket. He had received it from All Might along with a few additional details not mentioned on the official record.

"Midoriya, in the time she has been living with you as she displayed any quirk usage either on purpose or by accident other than the horn that is displayed on her head?" Shouta began stating the routine questions for a basic evaluation.

"Both sir, at first I thought that her horn was her quirk, but then I discovered that wasn't the case." Izuku began, before pulling his quirk notebook out. "She had an accident with a small cup, and before I could clean it up, she began glowing with her horn getting bigger and after a few moments the cup was repaired."

Eri looked at the two nervously since she knew that they where talking about her. Ochako however simply patted her hair gently. "It's okay Eri, we'll be done quickly." She whispered to her.

_'That matches up with what I got here in my notes. __**Rewind.**__' _Shouta thought as his eyes focused on the small child. "Very well, I'm assuming that you tested this out a few times to confirm your suspicions then?"

"Yes sir," Izuku answered sheepishly as he could see the stare from Shouta boring down on him.

"That could have been very dangerous Midoriya, especially if you do not know all the parameters of what her quirk could be capable of," Shouta said firmly. Izuku had no choice but to take the criticism, it may have been with the best of intentions, but Izuku knew that he was correct.

"Still you did help us save some time in guess work, so I'll let it slide for now." Shouta droned out. "The evaluations is divided into three parts: the first a general questionnaire, the second is practical and is the third is terming the complete activation factor. And as this moment; phase one of her evaluation is complete."

"We'll begin phase two tomorrow with practical demonstrations, it will also give me time to procure different types of materials for us to test safely." Shouta finished up.

The trio were surprised by how quick the first part of the evaluation was, but they haven't gotten a chance to really get to know the Head of their course. The man was known for making things short and to the point, not to mention Shouta was looking out for Eri's well being, given all the extra excitement that happened today, it could have a negative effect in her performance. It was better to have the second phase after a more relaxing day.

* * *

_**SLAM**_

"Gah!" Ryu exclaimed at he landed on his back with a small bounce on the matted hard wood floor. Despite the pain shooting throughout his body, he quickly rose back up and took up a defensive stance against his trainer.

"Good, you can endure pain, you'll need that should the worst scenario happen. Only Midoriya will not come at you with fist or grabs. He will gut you with those claws if he gets the chance." Kai stated with his dark eyes looking at the boy coldly.

"Tell Anno, I want a raise. I didn't sign up for a chance to get gutted like a fish." Ryu spat, "Bad enough you want me to keep an eye on the place for _'child endangerment'_...despite it being a fucking hero course, of course we're going to get into some shit."

"I don't care much for Anno's plans for UA, as I was against the idea in the first place, but that doesn't matter now. What does matter is the very possible and real threat Midoriya can cause."

"Okay...this _'__**Berserk mode' **_that you keep going on about. Are you sure that he even has it?" Ryu questioned. After all; wasn't it policy to go over volatile quirks?

"No, but it is better to be prepared, thanks to the approval of you being allowed to carry these," Kai answered honestly holding up an EQ Pen*. "It seems like your little incident with your sleep apnea made it much easier to approve. One quick shot and it should temporarily suppress any quirk in a matter of seconds for up to an hour."

"Nice of you to take care of my prescription," Ryu deadpanned. Kai however ignored the sass and continued speaking.

"You will permitted to carry two at all times. One for yourself and the second as a back-up, but of course should Midoriya go berserk do not hesitiate to use it on him."

"Be real with me here. Just how bad could this get?"

Kai looked at the boy right in the eyes, before removing his training shirt. Ryu tried to keep a stoic face, but not help but flinch at the sight. Kai's stomach was heavily scarred and mangled with several markings that looked like claws that had once ripped through him.

"This is only a taste," Kai answered, "Mind you that this happened to me, after Draco Knight had already killed and maimed nineteen villains, the very last time I had ever seen him go berserk."

"The incident from six years ago?" Ryu asked with a noticeably more concerned look on his face.

"No, it was an incident that happened thirteen years ago, another one that was covered up. The only reason I am alive today was due to a combination of experience, knowledge and sheer luck," Kai finished up as he replaced his shirt.

"This was once your job with Draco Knight...Wasn't it?" Ryu asked, putting some of the pieces together with what information he had.

Kai looked at the boy, his face reminding him of Hisashi. Kai couldn't help but smirk a bit at the irony.

"Once upon a time. Yes. Draco Knight had charged me with keeping people safe from himself. To keep the Dragon free and chain the Devil when needed." Kai answered before looking away no longer being able to look at the painful reminder at stood in front of him.

"You are dismissed from your training and make sure to read over the instructions of the EQ Pens."

"I know how to used them. It wouldn't be my first time using these on either myself or others," Ryu answered before grabbing the medication and leaving the private training room.

* * *

Ochako clicked away online, going over the old forums of an independent Draco Knight fan club that was still active to this day. She remembered the forum's activity during its height. Often featuring pictures of merchandise and contests they held were amazing it was after all how she got her Knight's Commander Medal that now hung proudly on her wall.

Even now she could see older pictures of members with sighed autographs and pictures with the Pro himself that used to drive Ochako mad with envy. Yet now she was determined to find a photo she knew she had seen before, one of the few with Draco Knight without his helmet. She knew saw it once or twice before but couldn't remember which post and in what sub-forum.

She realized earlier that she may have jumped the gun in assuming that Izuku was Draco Knight's son. After all it could just be a complete coincidence that Izuku and Draco Knight had similar quirks, but surely if Izuku really was Draco Knight's son then they would also share some other features right?

She couldn't even be sure that Draco Knight had a family, he had always been the type of hero who avoided talking about his private life. Yet also didn't mean that he didn't and given the what happened; Draco Knight's desire for privacy seen to have served him well. She wanted to be careful on how to approach the subject with the Midoriyas if her suspicions turned out to be true, she continued clicking over different posts, memes and discussions.

_**"Draco Knight's innocence! How The truth is being hidden!"**_

One forum headline said as she continued her search. She had been down that rabbit hole before, some claimed to be Pro-heroes in the night in question. Others said that they had relatives who claimed to had treated All Might that night, but Ochako had checked; All Might had been touring in US at the time of the incident.

"Is this it?" She said to herself. Clicking on a picture to expand it. Eyes widening as she saw the picture.

_**Drake's Den staffing. From left to right featured.**_

* * *

**Draco Knight Pro-hero.** Tall with wild black hair, and bright golden eyes. Wearing one of his signature "Armor" costumes that looked like classical steel plate armor, but was in fact made from a light weight hardened carbon alloy. It was battle ready; but Draco Knight had more often only used for special occasions. By his side was his signature helm the Dragon's Mask a classical knight's helm in the shape of a dragon's head with a fake feathers that decorated the top and sides.

Centered on the breastplate, his personal emblem.

However her attention was focused on his face, and found that they didn't match up to Izuku all too well. Save for the wild hair, freckles and maybe that warm smile. Draco Knight actually looked more like her other classmate Ryu, only Ryu didn't have freckles and had differently shaped eyes.

**Ryukyu Lead Sidekick.** It she wore a similar costume to her modern day costume the dark Qipao. Only this one had a pattern of flying dragons and Draco Knight's Emblem embroidered above her left breast.

**Tankman First Sidekick.** Large tan man with a wild red beard with a costume clearly of military influence with its camo pattern with what a appeared to be a Tank cannon mounted on his left arm.

**Daigo Urashima Lead Support Technician**. A tall slender man with thick coke bottle glasses and receding blue hair. Wearing a smart cut brown suit.

However the last person caught Ochako's attention, as this person almost cemented her theory instantly.

**Inko Midoriya Lead Administrator.** She hadn't aged much at all; save a few stress lines and wrinkles. That was the woman who had always been so kind to her. That was Izuku's mother no doubt about it.

She was sure now. Izuku was Draco Knight's son, there was just no way it could have been a complete coincidence now, but now that she had to ask herself, how could she bring this up? Maybe casually invite Izuku over and maybe leave some extra merchandise out and about? It was a lot to think about, not to mention they were still going to be busy for the next week for so with Eri.

Ochako looked at the picture again, before pulling up a picture of the three of them on her phone.

"After the evaluation, once things have calm down. That's when I'll try to bring it up."

* * *

Author's commentary

*EQ Pens: Since I work in the medical field and have had my fair share of jumping into emergency situations. One thing that came into mind was how would Epipens be used in the world of MHA? For those of you unfamiliar, **Epipens** or **epinephrine autoinjectors **are used when someone with severe allegies use for treat of  
**Anaphylaxis. ** So I had a smiliar mind set of how would medication and different quirks mix? So I decided to play with the concept and made in universe medications to stop quirks from going completely nuts in the event of seizure or some other emergency situation that may warrant the medication to be used. Ryu's Sleep Apnea in the last chapter is good example of why a medication like this could be vital. Imagine if he had been hooked up to an oxygen tank? BOOM central.

I don't have much to add except I hope you had fun.

_**Chapter XXI: The Nightmare Begins.**_ Will be out as soon as possible.

As always my dear readers.

With lots of love.

_**-X**_


	21. The Nightmare Begins

I'm not going to say much for this chapter other than, get ready for hype, the next few chapters are going to be crazy.

* * *

_**Reviews**_

**_bhennen_:** Good question; since we have yet to see Izuku in his complete armored form it is a bit tricky to explain, but the simple answer is two-fold. One the needles of the EQ pens are designed to pierce against even extremely solid flesh (They're for general use) Two: Izuku's armored form even when maxed out still has key spots where the armor is weakest and would be the easiest route to inject.

**_TheImmortalAce_:** I never really feel rushed, it's more like I am either dead tired and I end up missing a few things here and there, but I have updated the chapter to fix a number of mistakes that made it though. I will try to be more careful however.

**_Partickthenobleman_:** Yep it was a quirk adjustment, given that I revealed that in _**Chapter XII**_, I thought it was already shown, but I could always be a little more straightforward when making things clear that I'm splitting from canon and that is squarely on me.

**_Hankflamion18_**: I kind of have to disagree; biology and modern day medicine go hand-in-hand. Major changes to biology caused by quirks would have facilitated a massive needed to make sure that medications would be safe for people with quirks. In the case of the EQ pens and the Rewind Bullets, EQ pens are medication that only suppress, not remove quirks, with overdosing leading to permanent damage or death. Unlike Overhaul's plan to create a complete "Cure" for quirks, not to mention (this would take ages to explain but I'll keep it simple) It also has to do with formulas and patents, much like the "Brand" vs "Generic" (Advil, Moltrin vs. Ibuprofen- same main ingredient different fillers, colors and formulations) Sooo as much as I hate to say it, it still makes sense for Overhaul to continue his research for a product he would have complete control over. Quirk Assessments especially for a quirk like Eri's should take their time, and I did original plan for the elections to be a tiny bit different. (I wanted an extra vote for Izuku and discover it was Eri, but while cute, it ultimately just felt off and decided to go for a simple approach. As for the Hero Index, that is a yes and no question. Because in canon All Might always introduced in himself by name in his skinny form, and stating that he worked for All Might. I think heroes can actively choose to have certain information redacted from the index, otherwise All Might doing that makes no sense. Plus in the case of Draco Knight, since he died in disgrace, I pretty sure that _**Damnatio Memoriae **_is in effect. Completely wiped from the public memory damned and dishonored.

**_Moonstar31548:_** Mysteries is one thing I use to keep this story fresh compared to other retellings of this story.

**_D3lph0xL0v3r: _**Is he the traitor? Hahahah maybe! Keeping reading to find out. You got one part of Kai's vendetta figured out, but there is something more to it than just that. Far more, for everything else, it's just wait and see.

_**inFamousSlyMonkey**: _Can't say anything man! But I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter; and funny enough in the first draft of that chapter I actually did have the scene change to the traitor, but also knew that was pretty much an instant give-away from the phrasing, so I place the scene with Ochako instead. With the second scene being completely cut.

_**Ooobserver**_: I try to use very bit of canon lore I can find, even trivia on minor characters to try and flesh everyone else as much as possible, given that I won't be able to really work with ether class 1-A or 1-B until we get to _**Saga II**_, I still want to give snippets to everyone who won't be getting so focus just yet. Think of Rikidou Satou from _**Chapter IX**_ as an example. Also it's not just Denki you should be scared for; Mina Ashido has golden eyes too and Tomura never specified gender to the crew of villains.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_****_My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight_****_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc II: The Incident **_

_**Chapter XXI: The Nightmare Begins**_

* * *

_**"Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it."**_  
_**-Judy Blume**_

* * *

Tomura sat alone in the comfort of the bar, alone once again save for Kurogiri, and his new pet Noumu. Kurogiri was busy taking in inventory of the bar's stock and supplies, the meeting a few days back having exhausted much of his supply, while Tomura was busy on the phone while a second phone was on standby waiting on an update from Giran.

"I got the intelligence. Shame you couldn't get more information, but it will have to do," Tomura said lazily to the phone, while sneaking a peek on the progress of the game he was playing on the side.

"_Listen Tomura...I think we need to delay the invasion by at least another week; maybe even a month...Security's gotten tighter and it would give me more time to gain more intel on All Might. The Master said that he's supposed to be weaker, yet that doesn't seemed to be the case." _

"That would be too long of a wait," Tomura said in a steady voice; trying to control his temper as his anger grew thanks to the sheer audacity of his brother's request.

Between keeping the villains who planned to join the assault under wraps and tight lipped while trying to keep his other projects moving, not to mention all his efforts to keep Overhaul placated with a small lab he had provided so far. Tomura was still searching for the snow-haired brat having several eyes and ears looking for her. However Tomura knew his brother all too well. There had to be another reason for this request, the dead give away being his efforts to sound monotone.

He was either warming up to his classmates and really was going soft, or something else was making him want to delay. As the Ministry of Education was one of the few branches in the government that they had full access to thanks to the Master's foresight during the height of his power. UA had because more cautious since his visit, but there had been no reports of increased security other than system updates that could be easily remedied.

"_You're not here in the trenches like me Tomura. Between keeping my cover and coordinating free time, delaying so we're both ready would be the best course of action." _

He was stalling, Tomura was sure of it now. The plan was once to get in and get out, but now it seems like he wanted to play the waiting game. The Master often allowed for plans to change, if new opportunities presented itself. Before Tomura could answer back however, the second phone began to vibrate. Tomura unlocked the phone and began reading the message.

"Hold on for a second," Tomura said flatly as continued reading and mentally began decoding the meaning, slowly as he began to realize on what a goldmine of information he had just been given; his eyes widened as a grin slowly began forming on his face.

_**Bingo.**_

Now he was sure now why his brother had requested the delay; he had always had soft-spot for kids, the fool had even risked missions before to make sure kids wouldn't have gotten caught in the crossfire. This was going to the chance, the prime chance to kill so many birds with one stone, all of that time waiting for a sign was paying off in Tomura's mind.

Tomura followed up by turning the second phone into dust; having served its purpose.

"Sorry about that my dear brother." Tomura said in a newly found voice full of confidence and yet dripping ever so slightly with venom.

_"About fucking time." _His brother said clearly annoyed and yet sightly unnerved by Tomura's newly found tone of voice.

"You win, I got something new come up to buy the time you wanted." Tomura said softly knowing that his brother would find his new demeanor concerning; knowing that he had to make the call quick, "Stop by the bar in two weeks,and we'll coordinate from there."

"_Wait...what changed your mind?" _

"Never you mind. Just be grateful that your dear older brother has decided to heed your warning." Tomura continued as he rose up from his seat motioning for Kurogiri who was still in the middle of his inventory to follow him. "Have a good night brother." Tomura finished up making sure the call would end on his terms.

"_Wait, Tomura...WAI-"_ The phone cut off as it was slowly turned into dust. Tomura faced Kurogiri.

"Take me to lab. I think I can finally convince him to join us in the fun." Tomura said with an uncharacteristic glee.

"You're not really planning on delaying are you?" Kurogiri asked, having listened in on the conversation.

"No, and now I have an even better reason to move forward with the invasion without his idiotic desires to play hero. It's a prime chance to kill three or even four birds with a single stone!" Tomura laughed, "I'd be insane to pass that up."

Kurogiri looked at the man as he began to use his quirk to surround the two of them. He had known Tomura and all his other siblings since they were children. He knew that face; Tomura had made-up his mind. The bet was made, pieces were in place. The die had been cast, and the first move was about to be made.

* * *

As the new week started UA settled into a state of what would be considered general normalcy, as Class 1-A had just finished up joint day with the business course. The battle trials for Class 1-A and 1-B had just been shown to the school; having been edited up to become like summer B-movie action drama by some of the business course students much to the amusement of almost everyone.

For one those in the hero course, it was a chance to see their performance from the third person and the most popular ones had actually been treated almost like actual pro-heroes. Some even getting questioned by some of the journalism students.

And for the business course, it was their chance to show off their own skills to these future pro-heroes, be it for public relations work, marketing and even catering, as many hoped to latch on to some these potential future pros in the making.

"Oh man!" Denki exclaimed holding on to his sides barely being able to control his laughter from the viewing as he returned with a few others from the screening and performance reviews. "Hey Kirishima, it isn't manly hitting below the belt!"

"Screw you Kaminari!" Eijirou called back with a fresh wave of embarrassment and shame etched on his face.

"You're one to talk ~Whey~man~." Kyouka shot back in Eijirou's defense while laughing. "I can't even believe you actually shouted _'PIKACHU!'_ when you shocked Tentacole holy crap that killed me."

"Man everyone lost their shit at that part." Hanta stated wiping a tear from his eyes.

"You guys! Not in front of Eri!" Mina chastised the group as she had quickly covered the little girl's ears as her golden eyes bore down at them. Eri had been sitting on Mina's lap, having finally gotten permission from Eri to let her and a few of the other students to actually get hold her, while Ochako and Izuku were both still out the classroom for their own performance reviews.

Thankfully Eri had been far more busy with Katsuki's cellphone watching an older episode of _Animals Buddies with Anima and Comicman. _ Add the headphones she was wearing courtesy of Momo and she couldn't hear a thing. Katsuki who was sitting next to Mina in turn simply growled at the group, after all if he couldn't swear in front of Eri, no else would be allowed to do so either, especially not with his mood being so foul at the moment.

He should have been over the moon right now having taken the top spot with he performance in the battle trial having not only snagged him MVP, but made him one of the most popular potential heroes from all the votes he received from the general studies students; the looming threat of his probationary status threatened to ruin all of that if revealed. It did not help that Midnight had to remind him that should have the trial had been a real thing. His actions would have directly lead to Izuku's death, since it had been his plan to make Izuku carry the bomb out of the city.

"Sorry about that Ashido." Eijirou quickly answered with a pleading look in his eyes, while everyone else made their own apologies forgetting about their tiny guest.

"What did you guys do now?" Fumikage asked with a light tone of voice, trying his best to sound less intimidating while Eri was still present with them.

"I'm guessing that they swore in front of Eri again. Ribbit, you know either Uraraka or Midoriya would kill you guys if you did that right?" Tsuyu guessed correctly walking right past Fumikage and making her way to Eri with some apple sauce she had managed to snag from business course cart.

"Only if I don't kill them first," Katsuki interjected; still glaring at the group. "Besides I would do cleaner, Uraraka and Izuku would make them suffer." He added to the laughter of everyone else.

"I said I was sorry!" Eijirou pleaded, remembering the gen-ed student who had swore during their first joint class with them. Needless say no one wanted to feel the wrath he had been dealt with by the two.

"I am still surprised that Ms. Kayama allowed for that small amount of carnage to occur without raising so much as a protest." Fumikage stated flatly with a small smirk growing on his face as he read the expressions on the faces of this frightened classmates.

"Because she's a total softy for the Eri, then again who isn't?" Rikidou added as he entered the room with a slight look of disappointment on his face, between the votes and his general performance review and he couldn't help but be a tiny bit disheartened.

"I'm back Eri!" They all heard Ochako's voice call out, making Denki, Kyouka, Eijirou and Hanta all pale as they looked at everyone almost begging all of them not to rat them out. As Ochako appeared, Mina had to paused the video Eri was watching said with a teasing laugh.

"Your mama's here, Eri." Making the white-haired child look up at Ochako who almost instantly got off of Mina's lap and made her way to the brown-hair girl.

"Here's your phone back Bakugou." Mina added handing the phone back to its owner.

"Thanks," Katsuki said with a light growl, before looking around Ochako and not seeing Izuku with her. "Oi! Uraraka where is Izuku at?"

"Her husband's at a meeting with Yaoyorozu." Ryu answered for her as he appeared right behind her at the doorway, making his way past them both with Minoru, while his hands was in his pockets with a new black emergency bag strapped to the small of his back.

"Hey!" Ochako huffed at the black haired boy with a cherry-red face, before managing to to calm down enough to pick-up Eri.

"I wasn't talking to you As-" Katsuki was about roar out, before cutting himself off before he could finish his insult. Seeing the glare he was getting from Ochako that even made him wary.

"Oh good you do have a weakness." Ryu mocked before laughing trying to take full advantage of Katsuki being tongue-tied, before sitting down with his friends.

"Don't push it either Kasei." Ochako warned looking at the dark haired boy; not wanting Eri to pick-up habits from all the infighting the two constantly had with each other.

"Whoa there! I'll back off then no need for a threat." Ryu immediately said defensively raising his arms in a blocking motion to make his point clear.

The room slowly began to fill up as everyone else save their class president and vice-president returned from their joint-lecture.

"I hope you guys had fun with the business course students." Nemuri said walking inside classroom. "Midoriya and Yaoyorozu should be back just before lunch as they're having their first council meeting with the representatives from class 1-B. I do hope you learned a lot from this."

"It was indeed informative Ms. Kayama." Tenya commented, pleased that he had actually ranked well in his performance during the battle trial in addition that he had learned on what he could do to improve on left him in good spirits.

"Excellent! Now for the remainder of the period, I just wanted to highlight a few extra things that I noticed that could work well for class as a whole you see..."

* * *

Izuku and Momo both made their way to the student council room, it was short brisk walk. It was just an introduction to their Class 1-B counterparts along with listing their general shared duties with their respective classes.

"Are you nervous Midoriya?" Momo questioned as she walked along aside her class president; seeing the look in his pale looking face.

"A little bit, if I'm being honest." Izuku managed to breathe out, his life had taken a very interesting turn in the past year. He just never imagined anything like this would have happened given how the last prior six years had been.

"I just can't believe I'm the class president, I just don't feel like I'm the right person for the job." Izuku continued sheepishly.

"After seeing you in action during the battle trial I have to disagree with you Midoriya." Momo retorted, unable to understand where Izuku's lack of self-confidence was coming from. Still it made her feel just a bit better to know that she wasn't the only one with self-doubts in their heart.

"It was still Kacchan who got us through in the end, I made too many mistakes during my time as the operator."

"Midoriya, we were all caught off guard by the trial. If anything it was my own blunders that lead us to our near downfall, almost everyone else who had 'died' during save Jirou, and yourself, had been taken out under my watch," Momo said sadly.

Izuku could see just how bleak the conversation was getting, seeing that it wasn't the best start as they prepared to take on their duties as the leaders in their class.

_'What would All Might or my dad do in this situation?' _He wondered before trying something that came to mind.

"Then let's get better," Izuku simply said trying to piece it together on the fly.

"What?" Momo asked unsure what Izuku meant.

"I mean even if we didn't get the best results, everyone still seemed to trust us enough in electing us as class representatives. Then we simply owe it to all of them to try harder right? You said so yourself, I don't think anyone could have won that trial flawlessly and even with all of our mistakes; we still pulled a win. So the next time we have a trial like that we'll have more experience under our belt." Izuku said finishing up with his best smile.

Momo couldn't help but laugh as she saw his smile. "I think, I know why Bakugou was so adamant in having you serve as operator in the first place."

Maybe with the two of them working together they could form the leadership Class 1-A needed at the moment, with the mood improved slightly. The two arrived to the council room, it was a simple spartan room, with Eraserhead standing by with a bored look on his face, along side two faces they only vaguely remembered from the first day of school.

"About time you two got here, let's make this quick," Shouta stated flatly, while pulling out a few different items from his pockets.

"A few manuals that lists all of your general responsibilities," He began while laying out four small pocket guides, "A few general items," He continued placing items such a whistle and sheet with the names of other key personel down the chain of command. "And these," he finished up placing down four small pins; two gold and two sliver that were mini versions of the UA's school emblem, with a small centered _'HCY1' _etched underneath it. "Your rep pins, wearing them is optional but recommended."

As the four newly minted class representatives gathered their respective gear, Shouta made one last announcement.

"Now that we got that settled. Tomorrow Class 1-A and 1-B will be doing their first joint-training together. Rescue training at a special facility off the main campus. Keep this to yourselves for now and simply try to coordinate among yourselves on how you would want the divide-up the work and where taking account of the advantages and disadvantages of your classmates."

"I got a map of the site and locations you'll be expecting to train in throughout the day. And finally it will be me, your homeroom teachers, All Might, a special lecturer along with the big five will all be accompanying you to help divide up and get a chance to try out every location, I expect this will take up most of the day tomorrow so be prepared."

The four all nodded as they began to study the material and information they had been given.

"That's it for now, talk bit among yourselves to get to know each other, oh and before I forget. Midoriya follow me for a moment." Shouta finished up while motioning Izuku to join him.

"Yes sir," Izuku quickly answered, leaving Momo with the orange haired girl and the boy with blue hair from class B.

The two stepped out of the door and Shouta started without pause. "Given all the progress that Eri has made the last few days, I have decided to sign off on the second phase of her evaluation. The third and final phrase is simple enough that we can test it during the USJ if anyone gets injured during training. If everything goes right, I'll sign her off tomorrow and she'll be good to go."

"Oh! That's great!" Izuku exclaimed, it had been a few nerve-racking days given all the testing Eri had to do for the last few days, add the weekend with no answer, and Izuku couldn't help but wonder if she had failed.

"Calm down Midoriya even if I do sign off on the final phase; given her psyche reports I received. I would still recommend that she get a prescription for EQ pens like the ones Kasei recently got permitted to carry with him," Shouta added quietly.

"I guess that could come in handy." Izuku said to himself, slowly starting to mutter to himself to the annoyance of the department head.

"Midoriya," Shouta snapped out, quickly getting Izuku back into focus. "Best not to over think this. It's just a precaution to consider."

"R-right! I'll let my mom know about it then!" Izuku managed to squeak out.

Shouta simply hummed in response, before remembering that he had yet to inform the big five of their involvement.

"Finish up inside with the other reps and then head back to class."

"Yes sir," Izuku responded before bowing to his teacher and returning back to the council room.

"Ah there you are." Momo said welcoming Izuku back inside. "I managed to get a head start on the plans, is that okay with you?"

"It's fine, I'm sorry about that delay." Izuku answered by back with a nervous laugh while scratching the back of his head, before looking at his Class 1-B counterparts to introduce himself properly.

"I'm Izuku Midoriya Class 1-A's president." Izuku said with bow to the two, prompting both of the Class B reps to stand up and doing the same before introducing themselves.

"Itsuka Kendou, Class 1-B's president nice to meet you Midoriya." The orange haired girl with bright teal eyes said warmly, she was around his height, a real beauty with a simple albeit long ponytail.

"Shino...Shino Mizuoji vice-president of Class 1-B." The blue haired boy with golden eyes responded with a slightly more aloof and professional tone. He was a definitely the type of guy some would call the _"pretty boy"_ given his rather flawless looking features, his hair was short and well groomed, and was possibly wearing some kind of strong fragrance that made Izuku's nose wrinkle a bit in protest.

_'Geez, I'm pretty sure this guy could be on a poster or something.'_ Izuku thought looking at him.

"Well it's nice to meet you both Kendou and Mizuoji, I look forward working with you." Izuku said trying to put on an air of confidence.

"Same here." Itsuka answered before sitting back down and motioning to the plans on the table, "Now should we get back to the plan for dividing up the classes for the USJ?"

* * *

Alex was in a rather foul mood as he sat with his tray in front of him, to say that it had been a rough week for him was putting it mildly.

"Cheer up Springfield. I'm sure it will all work out. Heck your Japanese is really good." Mirio spoke up seeing that his friend hadn't touched much of his food.

"It's easy for you to say that man. You didn't get you provisional license suspended just for being a foreigner." Alex sighed out. The law that had passed a last week had finally gone into full effect; forcing all foreign pro-heroes and students to take a new language proficiency exam. "The backlog is prioritizing all the active pro-heroes first, I might not be able to take the exam for months! That's going to cost me work studies time!"

"Your frustration is understandable given this is our last year in UA." Mezou said calmly using two pods of his arms to form mouths, one to talk and the other to eat. "Still Springfield at least you'll still be eligible for new internships after the sports festival."

"Yeah, but I wanted to continue working under Comicman. Dude really helped me out by setting me up with a lot of contacts! I even got to be featured on his TV show a couple times." Alex exclaimed proudly. The show had not only helped his general popularity, but it even got featured by the news back home, making him a local celebrity of his hometown.

"It's a kids show Springfield," Tamaki interjected, not being the biggest fan of being the limelight.

"Shaddup mister _I choked on a mushroom and got caught_ Amajiki." Alex jabbed, making everyone at the table laugh.

"I almost forgot about that!" Nejire giggled. "Class B really pulled a fast one on us with some of those quirks, but Springfield didn't you fall for that one girl with the illusions?"

Alex looked hurt from that comeback. "What was I supposed to do?! I closed my eyes because I thought she was taking her top off! Do you know much willpower that took me to do?"

"You feeling better at least?" Mirio asked trying to dodge a particular sore spot for Alex.

"I'm..._fine_...I'm getting my costume modded to add protection to the general area because I didn't learn my lesson the first time." Alex deadpanned staring at him.

"That was unfortunate, getting hit in the same spot by two people with hardening quirks." Mezou commented with a slight tone of amusement.

"Har har keep kicking a guy while down why don't you?" Alex groaned before managing to get a light chuckle, having been made a laughing stock due to last two battle trials given the accidents that occurred in his defeats, but at least he was feeling somewhat better being able to laugh at himself, Mirio was right he'll get through this and come out for it better.

Taking a bite out of his food, Alex managed to small smile. "Thanks guys."

"That's the spirit." Mirio proclaimed cheerfully while everyone nodded along in solidarity.

"Yep...it can't get anymore worse than this." Alex said, only to immediately eat his words as he spotted Eraserhead making his way to their lunchroom table.

_'Oh...fuck me what now?'_ Alex thought seeing their department head before them, dreading on what he had to say.

"Togata I'm going to need you and the rest of your team suited up tomorrow." Shouta began saying to everyone's surprise.

"A mission?" Mirio questioned out of concern that they had been called up on a assignment.

"No, you'll be helping me and a few other teachers do a joint training lecture at the USJ, so yes Springfield you'll be able to join us as well." Shouta answered flatly before looking at the paling boy.

"Ummm...Mr. Aizawa sir...who are we helping train?" Alex asked praying it wasn't the first years.

"Class 1-A and 1-B."

"Oh...umm.." Alex stammered fears beginning to hound him as he remembered his last two encounters with the first years. "You know what sir...I think I'm coming down with something yeah..." Alex said while looked around trying to act ill; even considering to try and crash through one of the windows with his quirk to try and make his escape; as his nerves started to get the better of him.

"You're going Springfield, you can't afford to miss training, especially since I managed to secure you a place to take the language exam for your license next month."

Alex shot up at this news almost beaming with excitement as his nerves dissipating in an instant. "How?!"

"I was owed a few favors, and made a few calls. Don't make me regret it now Springfield." Shouta answered by walking away, he would never admit it, but he always had a soft spot for certain students who had always worked extra hard. Mirio and Alex among them, and he would be damned if some stuffed shirts in the Diet were about to fuck with the careers of his students.

Alex now elated stopping thinking about making a crashing escape through the window and saw his luck already turning around.

"Maybe...Hadou!" Alex called out Nejire sitting across from him.

"Yes?" She asked with a small tilt of her head.

"Go out with me please." Alex asked with a straight face.

"Nope," Nejire promptly answered without batting an eye, making the whole group burst into laughter.

"Well it was worth a shot." Alex laughed while shrugging before beginning to really chomp down on his food seeing that the lunch period was nearly over at the very least he would end lunch with a renewed hope that tomorrow would lead to better days.

* * *

The next day came in the blink of an eye as everyone was getting suited up for their first joint-training with Class 1-B.

"Alright everyone divide yourselves up by teams and form an orderly line to the bus please!" Tenya called out to the boys locker room while rapidly motioning with his arms.

"Hey Iida, last I checked Midoriya was class rep." Ryu called out as he finished adjusting his emergency pack over his costume.

"Actually Midoriya asked me to assist him on the boy's side given that he is prioritizing Eri's comfort for the trip." Tenya promptly answered before blowing a whistle in an effort to have the remaining boys in the locker room to speed it up.

"Ah never mind me then." Ryu responded before walking out the locker room with his friends, it was still early in the day but almost everyone had been very excited to go over rescue training as some students like Tsuyu had specifically set out to become rescue heroes over general combat heroes.

As everyone lined up outside with the teachers, the big five had made their appearance in their full costumes, some even sporting some additional gear that they weren't using during the battle trial.

"Morning everyone!" Mirio cheerfully exclaimed in a loud voice full of energy.

"GOOD MORNING SIR!" Inasa boomed out in response, much to the annoyance of everyone else. Some simple gave lighter greetings, with others not being completely awake yet.

A couple other students mainly Eijirou and Tetsutetsu avoided looking at Alex given their shared guilt at striking their upperclassman below the belt. While Alex made sure to keep his distance from the two, he may had new padding to protect himself, but he was done with anymore additional trauma to the family jewels.

"Okay is everyone all set to leave or are we missing anyone?" Shouta asked out, before someone from class B raised their hands.

"Kodai?" Shouta picked out a young dark hair girl in a bob-cut, wearing red body suit with match hat with what appeared to a white fin protruding from the top of the hat.

"Umm...who is that child in Class 1-A? Will she be joining us?" The normally reserved Yui asked out of concern seeing Eri in Izuku's arms without anyone questioning it.

Eri seeing that the attention was now focused squarely on her quickly looked way not comfortable with everyone from Class 1-B and the big five now looking at her, while Class 1-A quickly moved around to block Eri from view to try to mitigate the stares she was now getting.

"I see. I'll make this quick. Yes, Kodai the child will be joining us as part of her own quirk evaluation that she has been participating in for the last few days; one that she had started last week." Shouta began to answer her.

"Her name is Eri and she is currently under Midoriya's guardianship while here, so if you have any further questions or concerns regarding her, you may ask him _if_ he is available and willing. If everything goes well, today will be her last day here at UA." As he had spoke Izuku waved with his free hand when mentioned as Eri's guardian.

A number of 1-A students couldn't help but groan at that news as many of them had grown both fond and attached to the snow-haired girl.

"Now does anyone else have anymore questions?" Shouta asked one last time, when no further questions were raised everyone began boarding the buses and making their way to the site. Midnight had been very excited to do her own part in the rescue training with her class, having been relegated to teaching about the arts so far to her homeroom.

As everyone began chatting up in the bus, Eri took her chance to look around and getting to see just how nice everyone looked in their colorful or unique costumes, just like the heroes she saw on T.V. It wasn't long until Eri actually grew a bit excited when she saw someone else in more detail.

"Blinky?" Eri questioned, looking at Alex who seemed to be napping in his seat.

"What was that Eri?" Izuku asked as his and Ochako's attention were now fully gathered on her; Eri rarely ever called out to someone or something unless she was already familiar with it.

"I think that's Blinky from the show; the one with Anima and Comicman." Eri managed to breathe out, either out of nerves or possibly even out excitement.

"Hey umm Springfield?" Ochako called out to her upperclassman, who promptly woken up as Mirio proceeded to shake him lightly and directed him to look at the three with a confused look on his face.

"Alex is fine," He responded sleepily, never getting used to being addressed by his last name since coming to the country. "What's up?"

"Do you know about the TV show_ Animal Buddies with Anima and Comicman_?" Ochako asked, making the two upperclassmen laugh.

"He was actually a guest star a couple times when he interned with Comicman." Mirio answered flashing a smile to Eri. "Looks like you got yourself a fan Blink."

Alex had to admit is felt nice to get recognized for something outside of getting punched in the nuts twice at school.

"Indeed! Looks like the lil' darlin just made my day." Alex said with a wide grin leaning up on his seat fully awake. "Yeah it's just like Mirio said, I've been on the show a few times. I was mostly in the segments that featured foreign guests as a way for kids to learn about foreigners and some of the differences between our cultures. It was a great time."

"That's so cool!" Izuku exclaimed excitedly having only recently started watching the show with Eri in order to gauge the range of her interests. "Are you still interning with Comicman Springfield?"

"Alex is fine Midoriya." Alex managed to sigh out. "_Springfield_ is a mouthful so is _Alexander_. Or just call me _Blink_ if that makes it easier for you guys."

"So-sorry Blink," Izuku said sheepishly.

"It's cool just busting your chops." Alex laughed knowing the boy was just trying to be polite. "Anyways, I hope to continue interning with him, I'm just...well I got to weigh my options after the next sports festival ya know? Tell you what though since you got me in a good mood...I can maybe see about getting you guys a discount of some tickets for one of the live shows."

Eri actually gave Alex her full attention; having seen the commercials for the live show, they always looked like a lot of fun and really beautiful.

"Would you like to go to a showing one day Eri?" Izuku asked seeing Eri's reaction and seeing an opportunity for Eri to have fun and maybe even smile for once. It was still one of his top priorities to see the young girl happy to be free to experience joy. Maybe this show could be the chance.

Eri looked at him with a slightly hopeful expression. "Could we?"

Izuku smiled, "I'm pretty sure we can find some time if you really want to go to a show."

"I guess we'll take you up on the offer to you Spring- I mean Blink...if it's not too much trouble." Ochako chirped.

"Nah, if anything Comicman actually pushes all his sidekicks and interns to offer discounts on tickets. Believe it or not, the guy just loves to entertain kids, he normally just eats the cost with his actual hero work money, alongside Anima, that and the T.V. show," Alex laughed. "Just let me know when you got time after the training day and I'll set you guys up."

"Look alive everyone; we're here!" Midnight proclaimed as the bus began to slow down as they made their arrival to the site.

* * *

When the student gathered and entered; they were amazed by the sight of the USJ. Even Izuku and Momo who had seen maps of the area before hand were still left stunned by the sight as the map did the site no justice.

"Hello everyone it is very nice to meet all of you." A voice called out to them, a voice that made Ochako very excited to hear.

The Space Hero Thirteen had been waiting for them, alone much to the confusion of everyone else.

_'Wasn't All Might supposed to join us today?' _Izuku wondered as he saw Eraserhead walked up to Thirteen and while he couldn't hear them talking, he saw Thirteen raise up three fingers and Izuku had a guess on what might have happened.

_'Did he reach his limit today already? I know he was helping with some incidents earlier.'_

When Eraserhead turned back to face his students with a slightly more agitated look on his face. He was about speak when everything changed, the lights in the area began to flicker on and off with an electrical disturbance before finally dying, the fountain began to warp and distort with a large purple black mist appearing, slowly opening up and revealing a large number of people. Among them was a tall man with periwinkle hair covered with hands, a large violet creature with an exposed brain, and man with short brown-hair golden eyes and beak-like mask.

"What's going on?"

"I thought we were going to do rescue training?"

Eri looked around nervously while tightening her grip on Izuku.

"It's going to be okay Eri." Izuku whispered to reassure her.

The teachers and the big five knew otherwise however as they all prepared themselves for action.

"STAY BACK." Eraserhead ordered to the first years. "THIS IS REAL; THOSE ARE VILLAINS, THIRTEEN, MIDNIGHT PROTECT THE STUDENTS, VLAD, WITH ME. LEMILLION YOU AND YOUR TEAM ASSIST WITH ESCAPING THE SITE!"

"RIGHT!" The big five answered in unison as they began making a formation around the two first year classes, as Eraserhead and Vlad King made their way down to begin their assault.

"You sure she's here Shigaraki?" Overhaul asked flatly as he watched the two pro-heroes begin fighting Tomura's underlings.

"Oh I am she should be with the students up there. No worries though, Kurogiri will make sure to split everyone up. Once he does we can pick everyone off one-by-one and claim our respective prizes." Tomura answered. "Now it's time for us to have some fun."

As the first years began to try and make their escape they were confronted by the black mist villain; blocking their way.

"I'm afraid, I cannot permit anyone to leave." Kurogiri stated in a cold calm voice, his eyes spying a familiar face among them all; unsurprising to see him sporting a look of cold fury etched clearly on his face. He had just been back stabbed after all.

A small number of student from both class A and B tried to dog pile Kurogiri getting in the way of Midnight and Thirteen from using their quirks.

"BEGONE!" Kurogiri roared as several students began to be engulfed by black mist with a massive force projecting repelling those in farthest back, as their classmates began to disappear.

"ERI!" Izuku yelled as he felt Eri get pulled from his grasp her cries piercing the air before going suddenly silent, before his vision was clouded by darkness.

* * *

Author's Commentary.

I am combining the Overhaul and USJ Arcs into one? Yes. The next chapter is...I have no fucking clue how big it is going to be, but I am either going to do one massive chapter for the whole thing or split it into two.

Needless to say, the next chapter will be a slightly longer wait than my normal 7-10 days, but all I can say is this, for everyone who remembered how the Overhaul fight went in the canon series. Picture that with a Noumu in the mix...have fun with that image.

_**Chapter XXII: The Demon Versus The Dragon Part 1**_ will be out as soon as I can. (It may be split into two parts I'm not 100% sure just yet.)

Until next time my dear readers and as always with a lots of love.

_**-X**_


	22. The Demon Versus The Dragon Part 1

Sorry for the extra wait guys. I had some stuff come up that needed my urgent attention and kind of made me realize some very important.

So first and foremost. I want to pledge something to you guys.

First: I swear to all of you, that I have no plans to cancel this fic anytime soon.

Second: this is a very long term fic, that I have planned out to the end. (Which includes planning to break completely from canon to go my own way)

Third: With that being said, I can already confirm that this fic will most likely be well over 150 chapters and will take possibly a couple of years to complete. And yes I have every intention to complete this story despite this sizable endeavor. I'm in it for the long haul baby.

The only real way, I wouldn't be able to continue this story is if, I died, got into a coma, or otherwise was be rendered completely incapacitated. And in that case...as morbid as this sounds, I have already commissioned a very close and dear friend of mine, who keeps in regular contact with me and knows me personally. So should anything happen to me, he will provide an appropriate update and I will also leave behind an extremely detailed (currently about 9 whole documents of worth of notes) story plan if someone wished to take over for me and adopt the story.

Why is this coming up? Well I just found out my father has been diagnosed with cancer, hence the two day delay, since I kind of had to drop everything and go see him (we live in different states) And I only just got back home a few hours ago as of writing these Authors Notes.

And well that also kind of got me thinking about my own mortality and I never like leaving people hanging so if the worst ever happened to me, you guys won't be left in the dark with a dead fic. I personally don't want condolences, my father isn't dead and his condition is quite treatable.

Plus I think given my own profession in the medical field has kind of helped to emotionally shield me from this, of course I am a bit worried but life goes on, I also know that my father would not want me to dwell on this, so I will continue to do what I do best and entertain you guys.

Sorry for the rather bumming introduction, but I felt the need to get that off my chest, before I start the chapter. Also an extra special thanks to everyone who respected my earlier decision to delay the story for the KyoAni Arson. It honestly made my day and I don't regret it. (Since it also gave some extra time to polish up the chapter)

I hope you guys enjoy the chapter. (I'll be covering reviews again, when the USJ chapters are finished)

_**-X**_

* * *

_**Update Reviews! Chapter 21**_

_**Jetstar77: **_Yui Kodai aka, Ochako Pro-type 2 Class 1-B.

_**D3lph0xL0v3r: **_Maybe? Hahahaha

_**patrickthenobleman: **_That is one way of putting it.

_**JaxTheKnight2319: **_I know, I dislike putting Eri though hardship, but it will serve for her development just as much.

_**Beast King Achilles: **_War indeed.

_**Loggedin(Guest) **_Well welcome back my dear reader, hope you enjoy.

_**Ooobserver: **_You should see what I have in store for the next Arcs.

_**moonstar31548: **_Class 1-A and Eri together gives me life, even with my twists with Canon.

_**HunterQwon: **_Now there is a game I haven't heard mentioned in years. While it would be dope, no I already have a design for Izuku's shifted state.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc II: The Incident **_

_**Chapter XXII: The Demon Versus The Dragon Part 1**_

* * *

**"_Some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of the soul." _**

**_-Erza Taft Benson_**

* * *

Toshinori sat in Principal Nezu's office breathing heavily into a portable oxygen tank, it was a simple, but effective treatment to ease the pain and make his condition just a little more manageable. He could smell a fresh pot of tea being brewed by the animal educator; as he eased into the seat with a light wheeze.

"You should have been more careful All Might," Nezu chided cautiously to the skinny man, as he began to pour tea for himself.

"I know, I still find it difficult not to step in when I can," Toshinori said, his voice low and somber as he re-adjusted himself the couch and accepted a cup from his boss, ready to hear a lecture, only to be surprised when Nezu locked the door to his office.

"We have a small update on the investigation," Nezu stated as he settled himself on the seat opposite where Toshinori sat. "On one hand, it appears that either Kai Doumeki is either extremely lucky, or cleaner than initially thought, as we found nothing linking him directly in corruption by the hands of the Neocons aside from circumstantial evidence that wouldn't hold up in any hearing, let alone prosecution."

Nezu took a small sip of tea allowing Toshinori to a chance to speak, however he remained silent, allowing Nezu to continue. "Thankfully, Sir Nighteye seemed to have been prepared for such an possibly and still had made plans to open an inquiry from within the Diet itself to investigate the Neocons; specifically one of the heads, a gentleman by the name of Hideyoshi Anno. If we can't pin the Chief-Superintendent one way, then we will find another way; at the source itself."

Toshinori finally found his voice after taking a sip of tea and having let the information sink in. "Has there been anything new from any of the other teams? Endeavor? Gang Orca?"

"Gang Orca has noticed that there has been a sharp decrease in crime in his latest patrols, with some rumors he managed to hear from one villain is that the league we have been hearing about has apparently been recruiting in droves and the only update I've gotten from Endeavor is that his contact is currently..._'Babysitting'_."

"Babysitting...interesting term to use...as for rumors in the underworld there is always some manner of truth to it and given what happened last week, I can't help but feel a bit more on edge, like something big is about to happen," Toshinori said gravely. "Anything else?"

"Nothing so far, it has generally been quiet, other than we have some added worries for some of our foreign students to complete that ludicrous language exam that has been tracked on so haphazardly," Nezu answered with a rare hint of annoyance in his voice.

Toshinori looked at the ceiling, almost turning to prayer as his thoughts to turned to his long deceased master. What would she had done in his spot? Between teaching, working, doing his part in the investigation it was all starting to collectively eat away at him. As this wasn't a simple _'catching a villain and making the problem all go away with a single punch,'_ issue as this continued to have layers of complexity added without knowing who exactly really was friend or foe.

_'Hopefully we'll make another breakthrough in the investigation soon,' _Toshinori thought before taking another sip of his tea.

* * *

Mirio looked on with Tamaki and Nejire, they hadn't been launched too far away as they stood on top of one of the fake buildings of the Collapsed Zone, they could see that Mezou had managed to stay near the entrance way with Thirteen and a few others from both Class 1-A and 1-B.

Mirio theorized that Midnight and everyone else had been blown away across the USJ. This also meant that anyone who wasn't lucky to be paired up with either Midnight or Alex would mostly likely find it difficult to find their way out of the enclosed areas. Such as the Conflagration and Downpour Zones. Assuming that either were in one of the enclosed zones.

Mirio could also see some of the students in the same Zone as them, but after seeing who was there, Mirio wasn't as worried about those wild cards being able to take care of themselves. Especially the one who loves blowing things up.

"Nejire, Tamaki. We needed to make sure that we get everyone out of here safely. Tamaki head to either the Downpour or Conflagration Zone, find everyone you can leave and guide them to the exits. Nejire I want you to fly around and rally everyone in the open Zones and try to guide them back to the Entrance way. I'll be backing up Mr. Kan and Aizawa."

The two nodded knowing there was no time to lose, Mirio was their leader and always had solid judgment when breaking the situation down. The battle in the USJ had begun with no one having any idea, just how much of an impact today would have in the years to come.

* * *

"GO TO HELL!" Katsuki roared as he continued to fight on blasting foes left and right as Hanta and Minoru trapped them with their quirks. They had landed in the dead center of the Collapsed Zone with a few others from Class B. In his wrath Katsuki showed no mercy to the villains for not only butting in on their training, but knowing that Eri was out there most likely scared out of her mind.

"Next to ya fam!" Camie called out as she pinned a villain who was about to attack an illusion of Ibarra, as the real Ibarra stood above standing like if she had been praying while using her vines to both feel out for others in the area and or striking down villains when they got close to her companions.

"No luck finding anyone else, I think it's just us here," Setsuna called out to them, as she reformed her body back to normal, having split herself up earlier to scout out for other students or teachers. "The good news! I think I found a fast way out of here, also damn guys you made quick work of the villains," she praised seeing the collective work they had done.

"These weaklings got nothing on us. Now let's go, Tape arms swing on ahead with the grape and set-up some traps. I'm not dealing with any more weaklings, not while Eri could be out there." Katsuki ordered, while feeling a villain getting closer behind him. "Lizard girl, hurry up and show us the way out. Vine girl keep feeling out for everyone else. Bad trip keep making illusions and make sure that any of these weaklings end up falling into those traps."

Camie laughed, while Ibarra looked annoyed by the demands from the vulgar blond.

"A '_please' _ would be nice good sir." Ibarra stated while slightly irritated as she came down to their level, while staring down Katsuki who in turned simply scoffed at the idea, while in the background Hanta and Minoru both began to motion silent apologizes to her; knowing that Katsuki wasn't going be apologizing anytime soon. "Also my name is Ibarra Shizosaki, that is Camie Ustsushimi," She continued motioning to the tall winking blonde in a black catsuit with white boots wearing a rather large and poofy looking black beret*. "And that is Setsuna Tokage." She finished up motioning to the dark-green haired girl in an equally dark-green* scaly body suit who wore a mischievous smile while looking at the ash blond teen.

"Indeed, Shizosaki and while we're at it, who died and made you leader?" Setsuna said in a mocking and haughty tone, while parting some stray hairs out of her face with her hands.

Katsuki looked at the three girls with some annoyance save for the attractive looking blonde, when he could feel the villain behind him about to strike. He decided then and there to make said villain an example as the moment when the villain lunged hoping to catch him off guard. He was swiftly caught, pinned and singed by a swift explosion.

_**Boom**_

"That's why I'm in charge," Katsuki answered standing tall as the girls stood silent; stunned by Katsuki's swift counter. "We don't have time to waste. Now...either move your asses or stay out of my way." Katsuki finished up as he made his way to leave the building with Hanta and Minoru moving on ahead. He needed to get moving, he needed to find Eri and Izuku and fuck-up who decided to mess with them.

"That was a pretty lit display, totes I like a guy that walks the way he talks ya feel?" Camie admitted before deciding to follow him, leave the remaining girls from 1-B to reluctantly follow them, knowing there wasn't much else to do, besides, other students might need back-up as well.

* * *

Kashiko had been flung violently into icy water chilling her to the bone while pain spread rapidly across her back, with a ringing in her ears that only deafened as they were filled with water. She flayed wildly in water in an effort to try and steady herself; given that she had been given no warning to breathe before being forced into a sudden dive. As she managed to get her some of her barrings while she could feel movement from the ripples of the water surrounding her, she wasn't alone.

She opened her eyes only to be to met by a sharkman swimming toward her at full-speed; mouth open wide to take a large bite into her, she began to panic as her quirk was completely useless for the situation and with her movement hindered all she could is accept what she thought would be her end. Thankfully a blue-haired boy with golden eyes appeared wielding a large shiny sliver pole knocked the villain aside, before quickly swimming up and grabbed her before rapidly making their way back to the surface.

"AH!" Kashiko breathed in as she managed to get some air into her burning lungs, coughing heavily; while grateful for every breath she managed to get.

"Over here Inasa!" She heard the boy from Class B say as he broke through the surface as well. As the air around the water began whipping upward almost as if a helicopter had been flying above them. Kashiko looked up to see a large boy also from Class B had appeared above them in a large weighted brown fur coat costume and a large fur lined hat like those of Russian Tradition*. Flying above them with ease as he began descending with his large arms reaching out.

"Hand her here!" Yoarashi called out, getting closer to the water's surface.

"Sorry about this," The boy a said with some embarrassment, as he grabbed Kashiko by the waist making her squeak with surprise, only to be suddenly launched to Yoarashi's arms, thanks in part to the boy's water quirk.

"Meet-up at the boat!" The boy ordered Yoarashi before diving back under the water. Yoarashi simply nodded while doing his best to kept a steady grip on the white haired girl.

"Sorry about that! But the water is filled with villains that almost managed to get some of us, and Mizuoji is the only one with quirk for the perfect for the water," He said as they approached a boat in the middle of the fake lake of the Flood Zone. The boat already had a few other students on it; all of them from Class 1-B. As Yoarashi landed on the boat; letting Kashiko get on her feet.

"You alright there?" A young man dark haired boy asked, Kashiko recognized from when she took the entrance exams; Sen Kaibara.

"Yeah, a bit of a rough landing," Kashiko managed to joke doing her best not to let the situation get the best of her, hoping she had learned from the battle trial. Behind her a splash and a thump was heard, as she turned she could see the boy that had saved her, wearing a bright blue and white wet suit, only without the sliver pole from earlier.

"How bad is it down down there Mizuoji?" A skinny brown haired boy with large round eyes asked.

"I lost count after fifteen Tsuburaba," Shino answered with some frustration, "I lost my staff when two of them proved a lot more clever than I thought, I almost got overwhelmed down there."

"Hey how come you guys didn't make your way to the land, instead of the boat?" Kashiko asked while looking around the edges of the boat, she had part of her answer looking at the central plaza and seeing some fighting still going on between the villains and some of the teachers.

"We're not sure where the safest place to land is, and even then we don't know how long it would take Inasa to us fly back in forth, since he can't carry all of us and fly safely." Sen answered her, before looking down and pointing at some of the water villains who were starting to appear from the depths. "So someone could be left behind to deal with them, even now trapped on the boat we still have safety in numbers."

"If we had a way to know exactly how many there are and where they are in the water, then we can make a break for it." Kosei answered a bit nervously. "Mizuoji and Kaibara could both swim faster thanks to their quirks, I can use my quirk to make platforms and jump out, and Inasa could fly you out."

_'A way to know where all the villains are huh?' _Kashiko thought, before remembering some of her the features of her support gear. "I think I have a good way to do that."

"We're all open to ideas." Shino answered with a slightly more optimistic look on his face. Kashiko pulled out a small round device from her costume's utility belt, while trying to think a bit more outside the box, like how Momo or Izuku might have done in her situation.

"Hear me out."

* * *

Eijirou, Mina, Itsuka and Tetsutetsu were slowly making their way in the heavy rain of the Downpour Zone, they had been lucky to not have encountered any villains so far, but none of them wanted to take any chances. Since Mina knew her acid would be diluted by the heavy unyielding rains, and Tetsutetsu could suffer from a corrosion side-effect if he gets exposed to water for too long in his iron form. Their collective fighting strength was greatly reduced.

The group had been trying to make their way east, as Itsuka could remember seeing the exit for the Downpour Zone on the map she had been given earlier and thankfully she also knew that the fake streets that used the cardinal directions were still facing their correct orientations; meaning east still meant east. As such she had quickly taken the lead for this makeshift group after not being able to find anyone else in the area.

"I don't think we're that much farther away,"Itsuka whispered as she could see the edge of the dome which should house the exit to the zone.

"That's good," Mina sighed in relief.

"It's not the most manly course of action, but better to play it smart." Eijirou said, also relieved that they were almost to safety unharmed and ready to back-up their friends when they get outside.

"That my class rep for you," Tetsutetsu praised proudly, making Itsuka blush just a touch as she was simply doing her best under the circumstances.

After a few more moments Itsuka turned at a corner and took a peek. In an instant excitement grew when she saw the exit, the excitement quickly turned into stone cold fear. Nearby the exit were several bodies with a lone individual in what appeared to be black and blue costume wielding what appeared to be two long swords waiting for them. The blood had mixed in with the water, leaving a long spread of reddish water trailing from the source that was slowly making its way to the alleyway they were hiding in.

Itsuka pulled her head back; heart racing, quickly clamping her mouth with her hands to keep herself from screaming from the sheer shock from the sight. She couldn't tell from her if the bodies had been villains or other students from this distance, all she knew is who ever that guy was, he was bad news and that they needed to be careful in dealing with him.

"Whats wrong?" Eijirou asked concerned. "Villains?"

Itsuka slowly managed to whisper to them. "There's someone there...with a lot of bodies by his feet."

"Bodies?!" Mina almost screamed out, her pink skin almost going completely pale at the thought. The four stood there for while trying to think of a way to approach the situation. Finally Eijirou decided he need to see the situation himself and slowly began moving to take a peek for himself, just like Itsuka said, there were several bodies a short distance away...only now there was no one there.

"Kendou...you said there was someone there right?" Eijirou whispered, Itsuka looked at Eijirou for a moment confused.

'What to do mean...was?'Itsuka was about to ask before it dawned on her. "MOVE!"

Using her quirk to make her hands large, she instantly grabbed everyone and moved as the blade wielding villain had descended with on them from the roof top, unfortunately he had managed to slice a fair bit of Itsuka's enlarged left hand. She screamed as finally let them go as blood began flowing freely from the slice.

"Kendou!" Tetsutetsu reacted turning his body into iron, if he could win fast enough he could avoid rusting in the water. As Itsuka returned her hands to normal trying to put pressure on her bleeding hand.

"You've got good instincts girl." The blade villain said wearing a half mask that muffled the mocking tone of his voice, "I happened to see you the first time with my heat sensor quirk, you all stick out in the cold thanks to your body heat...still I'm left disappointed as it seemed that my target isn't here...still no matter...as I can at least still claim a bounty for her."

He finished up as his eyes turned to Mina as her bright golden eyes, stood out much easier thanks to her black sclera. Mina could almost feel the man's intentions to kill her, while Eijirou began to harden up his own body.

"If you want her...you'll have to get through me," He proclaimed standing his ground, determined not to flee or simply standby like a coward like he had once done before. Especially not to the one had showed him that bravery firsthand...not to his horn buddy.

"Cute, but stupid." The blade villain said rolling his eyes slightly, before charging with his blades at ready, only to be met with a bright blue flash and a swift kick in the face that send him skidding back.

"Get the fuck away from my juniors!" Blink yelled as he appeared in front of the four, his fists layered with a metal layered gauntlets. Without looking back at his juniors he began giving out orders with none of the normal humor found in his voice, only voice of a Hero that knew just how dire the situation really was.

"You four leave _now_."

Eijirou and Tetsutetsu both began protesting, before Blink interrupted while his eyes keeping firmly on the blade villain.

"I know you want to help me guys, but I'm your senior and I'm telling you to let me handle this, please get out and get to safety guys. _Go_." He didn't yell or scream, but his tone left no room for arguments. Itsuka knew despite her want to stay and fight knew that Alex was doing his duty as their senior and motioned for Tetsutetsu to start moving, despite his initial resistance.

Mina put her hand on Eijirou's shoulder normally she wouldn't go for such a move, but between feeling useless thanks to the rain, and knowing that the villain especially wanted her dead. She was simply an extra worry for Alex to combat, not to mention Itsuka was still bleeding like crazy even having to tear a piece of her costume to wrap her hand around it.

"Kiri..."She whispered her voice telling Eijirou everything.

_'Damnit.'_ He thought before yelling out to Alex. "We'll come back with back-up man! I promise!"

"Heh, as if I'd die here Rockman." Blink said with a small grin forming under his Mask of Tragedy. "I still got bets riding on some of my ships, and I ain't dying til I collect."

The four struggled leaving for a few more moments as they could see the blade villain bidding his time, finding the right moment to strike. Finally the four began moving toward the exit, keeping at eye on the villain and their senior as they did.

The blade villain knew that if the five had fought all at once, he wouldn't stand much of a chance. All the bodies from the villains earlier had been due to some of the infighting that escalated into killing each other when a fight broke out about who would claim the bounty money if they collectively caught someone with golden eyes. He didn't kill them by himself, but they didn't need to know that.

The boy who stood in front of him now, he was far more seasoned, yet surely he knew that fighting alone would increase his the likelihood of his own death.

"I hope you made peace with yourself Hero," The blade villain proclaimed, "you're going to regret sending them away."

"God shut the fuck up, only regret I have is being stuck with you instead of some hottie villain. At least then I get some eye-candy while I fight." Blink sharply answered trying to get back into character without worrying about his juniors, "but noooo...instead, I just get a discount wanna be Stain that goes after kids. Sad really."

The blade villain could feel anger brewing under him. 'A wanna be discount Stain?!'

"But that's what we get for being Original Characters in fanfiction no one cares about us." Blink said, confusing the blade villain who simply stared at him.

"Wha-" He started before Blink used his quirk to get a swift flurry of punches in; while none of them landing as the steel gauntlets clashed with steel blades.

* * *

Ochako, Momo, Kyouka, Denki, along with Yui Kodai and Yosetsu Awase from Class 1-B where battling fiercely in the Mountain Zone.

Ochako clashed with riot shield and baton, being somewhere between royally pissed and worried sick about Eri hoping that either Izuku or somebody trustworthy was with her. Given that all she could do at the moment was try to clear out these villains before going off to look for her, she spared no mercy to any villain who had the misfortune to get close.

"On your left!" Yosetsu yelled at Denki, before knocking a villain off his feet and following up by using his quirk to weld him to the ground; laughing loudly as he did.

Denki heeded the advice and dodged the villain with ease, before getting a chance to counter with his stun rod with a satisfying _Zap_ as the rod knocked the villain out. "Thanks man!"

Momo was able to keep her cool while they fought; barking out orders to her team while they covered Kyouka who had been scouting for more villains or other students in the area. Due to the noise and added rumblings, Kyouka needed some extra time to isolate any extra vibrations in the ground while keeping the makeshift machete Momo had made for her on hand.

"Yaoyorozu?" Yui called out, before blocking a villains punch with staff she had been given and countered by turning the villain's clothes tiny and constricting, buy her time to swiftly kick the offender back.

"What is it Kodai?" Momo answered after striking the villain that had gotten to close to Kyouka with an expertly timed jab of her staff.

"I think they're after Kaminari," She said quietly while motioning her head to Denki, who did seem to have far more villains after him than anyone else. Some of them with expressions that seemed far too eager to be normal.

"Sorry for the wait Yaomomo," Kyouka sudden spoke up seemingly done with her scouting. "There's a villain somewhere in the ground over there," She added pointing to the area where Denki was, not realizing of the conversation that Momo and Yui had been having at the moment.

"Oh no, it might be a trap...let's move!" Momo ordered as the planned while mentally taking of the remaining villains who aren't knocked out and or welded to the ground courtesy of Yosetsu. "Uraraka, Awase, Kaminari group back up together! And them push them back together! Kodai make that staff as big as you can! And get ready to have it rolling!"

Seeing one villain trying to get a fast on Denki's blind spot,Momo threw her staff like a javelin managing to knock out the villain and saving Denki as he made he way back to the group. Taking the chance to create a flash grenade, and seeing the Yui's staff was now the size of a large pillar she pulled the pin before giving one last order.

"Get behind the staff and cover your eyes now!" In the heartbeat all the students managed to avoid the bright glare that left the remaining villained briefly stunned. Momo wasted no time; seeing most of the villains lined up perfectly "Uraraka! Launch it!"

Ochako had to look for a single moment to realized what she had meant before doing it, "SHIFT!" She yelled as she launched pillar forward with her quirk; knocking most of the remaining villains down like bowling pins.

"STRIKE!" Denki proclaimed with a laugh.

"Come out now!" Momo ordered to the hidden villain, "I know you're out there, come out now and surrender."

"Is there someone else Kodai?" Ochako asked unsure of the situation. Yui simply nodded as she grabbed a few nuts and bolts from one of the pouches of her costume. She threw them in the air growing bigger as they ascended, before landing with a heavy crash where Kyouka had pointed too.

"Damn it, seems like you kids really are something else." A more menacing voice said suddenly as a villain arose from the ground only inches away from where some of Yui's weapons had landed. Sparks zapping in his hands.

"An electric type," Momo breathed out, knowing that someone like him even by himself could be far more dangerous thanks to a quirk like that.

"So he's kind of like me huh?" Denki questioned looking at the electric villain with the skull shaped mask, wondering if might be able to absorb any attacks like a lighting rod to shield his friends.

"Seems like its up to me to take care of all of you," the skull villain stated as his hand began to draw more power getting ready to unleash it. "I don't mind, given that I can collect the bounty on the blond there solo. No need to share the prize right?"

"What the hell does that mean?" Yosetsu asked looking at the stunned Denki.

'A bounty?' Momo questioned, someone put a bounty on Denki's head? Why?

Seeing that the villain about to strike with his quirk, the group had moved to brace themselves for the attack, when he was suddenly shot by a large beam knocking him out as he was slammed against a large mountain rock.

"Phew! That was a close one!" They heard a familiar bubbly voice said above them. Nejire-Chan had arrived.

* * *

Mezou was doing his best to take care of his teacher Thirteen, who had been injured while trying to get Tenya to escape from the building. It was thanks to the collective efforts of him and the remaining students that led to the successful escape.

Back-up was coming they just needed to hold out for a bit longer.

Everyone else was busy watching the fight below, he would like preferred to join the battle like Mirio and Tamaki did or find other students like Nejire, but he also knew that he needed to stay here to make sure none of the other juniors did anything foolish.

Alex was the only senior still unaccounted for, no matter where he was, Mezou hoped that he was leading their juniors to safety without fighting, given that Alex currently had his license under suspension, he feared that Alex may not be completely protected to fight villains legally, the same applied to the juniors and one of the major reasons they wanted them avoid combat, that and their personal safety being their top priority.

* * *

The flames of the Conflagration Zone roared like those of hell, with several of the buildings that are often set continuously on fire for training purposes. Now they were ironically serving as a death trap to several of the students that had found themselves inside of it.

Tsuyu leaned on Fumikage as the heat slowly began to wear her down, her costume doing very little to protect her from the vicious heat that now threaten to kill her if she remained there for too long.

"Stay with me Asui, I will try to get us out as soon as possible," Fumikage whispered as he half-carried the frog girl moving as swiftly, yet as silently as he could, despite heat eating at him as well; though not as severely as Tsuyu. It also didn't help that all of the light from the flames would make it difficult to use Dark Shadow effectively without draining his energy rapidly should they encounter enemies. He had no time to lose.

"Ribbit...call me Tsu please," Tsuyu said weakly, as her breathing grew more and more labored, something that made Fumikage concerned while fighting the mild embarrassment he was suddenly feeling; he had never called a girl by her given name, while he had already observed Tsuyu's habit of asking everyone to address her like that; it was still a strange concept for him to grasp. The two continued to walk down an empty fake street trying their best to find their way out when they heard a different sounds; voices to be more accurate.

"What do we do with her Monoma?" A voice asked with concerned voice.

"She's was with Class A, but we obviously can't just leave her here, but I don't know how to convince her to join us." Another voice responded with some annoyance.

"Ma-maybe I can try to reach her?" A small shy voice squeaked up.

The two some Class 1-A slowly got closer to find some students from Class 1-B much to their relief.

"Excuse me!" Fumikage called out to them, making the trio turn. One was a blond male with blue eyes, wearing a tuxedo like costume with watches on his belt; Neito Monoma was his name if Fumikage remembered correctly as he also took a look at the other two teens. The second; a dark haired boy in what appeared to a jumping vampire outfit** Hiryu Rin and finally the only female with short brunette with long bob-cut hair that covered her eyes, with what appeared to be a dress with matching hat in the red-white coloring of a toadstool mushroom Kinoko Komori. And behind the three of them, hidden under some of the fake rubble was Eri huddled deep inside of it, as if she had been trying to keep herself out of reach from the teens she didn't know.

"Eri! Ribbit," Tsuyu croaked out seeing the state Eri was in, Fumikage moving them closer to reach the child.

"Oh good you guys know her better right, can you help us get her out of here?" Kinoko asked seeing the two coming their way, Fumikage was about to answered when a cruel sounding voice rang out from the flames.

"Oh leaving so soon?"

"Oh crap villains!" Hiryu exclaimed as his arms began to scale up and aimed them down at them with Neito doing the same after touching his classmate and copying his quirk. Seeing the villains appear from down the street with some of them seemingly manifesting from the flames themselves.

"My spores will burn up in this heat! I don't think I can fight!" The brunette said fearfully.

"Komori, help the two from 1-A get the girl and move, we'll cover your retreat." Neito answered her with voice mixed with confidence and nerves. Making the brunette nod before moving to help Fumikage support Tsuyu and getting themselves closer to Eri.

The villains were walking slowly seemingly using caution as they moved toward their targets, the pacing only made the two teens from 1-B more and more nervous with the heat not helping their situation.

"Eri, ribbit it's me, Tsu! Come with us ribbit! We'll get you out of here and get you back to Midoriya and Uraraka," Tsuyu said softly trying to calm the nervous girl down as quickly and yet as calmly as possible. At the names of her surrogate parents, Eri looked up to see a worn out Tsuyu with Fumikage and the unfamiliar brunette from the other class.

"Back to Papa and Mama?" She asked, her words surprising Tsuyu and Fumikage and confusing the mushroom brunette. The two animal teens simply looked at each other for a moment before coming to a silent agreement with a simple nod and letting Eri's comment slide as they had no time to lose with pointless questions.

"Yep, ribbit back to them come on let's go lil' tadpole," Tsuyu answered with a wobbly smile that gave Eri the confidence to reach out for her. As Tsuyu grabbed on to Eri, one of the villains began calling out with a vicious cackle.

"Not so fast dearies!" Her voice rang out making almost everyone who heard her shutter as she carried a cruel looking whip that was currently set aflame.

"Don't touch the girl, but kill the teens, we don't need them," said a familiar reedy voice that made Eri tremble with fear. Among the villains was a short man with full bird-like mask and hood.

"Chrono..." Eri managed to breathe, Chronostasis: Overhaul's right hand man, her nightmares where coming true. He was here back for her.

"Hello Eri, nice to see you again. You've been gone from us for quite sometime and I think its about time for you to come back to our brand new home," the man said in a tone that was so flat, and yet so cold that despite the flames, everyone who heard it be they student or villains felt a chill rundown their spines. "It's time to come back home to your dear old..._**Dad.**_"

* * *

Above them all Ryu watched the scene unfold as he stood inside one of the buildings the flames that once coated it having been put out thanks to his quirk. His face was blank completely emotionless, on the surface he seemed perfectly calm and collected. Internally he was fighting with himself.

_'Leave them, it will make your job easier.'_

'It can...but it doesn't feel right.'

_'It's not about feeling right, it about doing your job. Anno would be over the moon, UA attacked by villains, several dead. He proposes more education reforms and boom done.' _

_**'No move in to save them. Fuck Anno plans, their lives aren't worth sacrificing for his plans.'**_

'I hate Anno, but given everything...'

_'You but know what He will do, if you don't cooperate. They'll suffer and you can die.'_

'My life isn't worth theirs and since when the fuck have I cared if I live or die?'

_**'You're better than this. You know that this isn't the only way.'**_

'I'm just a pawn here, I...I move when ordered.'

_**'Even pawns on the chessboard can become something even greater, if given the chance. You're a Pawn on one board, but you're also a Bishop on another, and a Knight on another, this isn't the only board at play. You know this.' **_

_'What about __them__? Don't you remember why your here? For them?' _

Ryu bit down on his lip in anger, his left hand striking the wall in frustration. He couldn't forget about them, after all they're the reason he's here in the first place. He had debts to pay and while he could pay them with his life, he would leave so much behind, so much left undone if he died today.

_'You are not a hero, you will never be a hero. You are a fake. Run and be done with it.'_

'You're right about that.'

_'Exactly, you have your plans, your plans for the future require sacrifices to be made, blood to be paid.' _

_**'Wrong you have a chance to be better. You want a better world. Then you need to be the example for that world.'**_

'That world is meant to be built by real heroes...something I'm not.'

Ryu turned around ready to walk away, until he heard it.

A scream, Ryu turned again to see that the whip villain had began lashing out at his classmates, striking at some of them with that flaming whip, while rest began surrounding them, soon they will cut off their chance at escaping. He saw Fumikage shield Tsuyu and Eri with his body as some of the embers burned the two girls as well.

"STOP YOU IDIOT!" He heard the birdman yell out as another villain was charging up a large blast of fire aiming right at them.

As he saw the fire heading toward all of them, it had been the last straw for him.

_'You're a fool.' _

'FUCK IT, FUCK KAI, FUCK ANNO, FUCK ALL OF IT! I JUST CAN'T STAND BY AND LET THIS HAPPEN!' Ryu thought as he began to run as fast as he could down the stairs.

* * *

"DARK SHADOW, SHIELD US!" Fumikage ordered despite the burns on his back, still tried to move as fast as possible; when he saw the flames coming their way, when he knew that they weren't going to be fast enough, he had Dark Shadow grab everyone and tried to protect them from the blast coming there way. He knew it wasn't going to last, all he could now was simply brace for the flames that would spirit them away into the next life once it ate though Dark Shadow.

Hiryu closed his eyes and prayed, Neito simply braced with his classmates ready to face his end. Kinoko was desperately fight back the tears of fear, Tsuyu gripped Eri with all her might, begging forgiveness to her family. Eri simply cried for her two surrogate parents as she began to glow slightly her horn getting a tiny bit bigger and finally Fumikage simply accepted his fate along with his failure.

_'I'm sorry everyone.'_

Everyone felt the flames getting closer, getting hotter, and getting brighter. Dark Shadow was beginning to squawk and scream as the bright light began eating it away. And for a moment to the group it seemed like it was over, as it got darker somehow...cooler?

"WHAT IN THE WORLD?!" One of the villains screamed. Fumikage stole a glance to his side and found out the following in order. They were somehow still alive, the flames were somehow being pulled away from them, and finally they had an ally join the fray.

The flames were being sucked away consumed by Ryu who seemed to be struggling eating up that much fire at once, when the flames disappeared, Ryu pulled back for just a moment before unleashing hell right back at the villains with a great big and deafening.

"_**ROARRRRRRRRRRR!"**_

* * *

Only a few blocks way, Izuku, Tooru and Mashirou could hear the earth shattering roar that rang out as they had been trying to navigate through the burning city. Fighting small time villains with ease along the way.

"Kasei?" Tooru questioned.

"I think that was him. Midoriya, what do you think? Wasn't that one of Kasei's fire blasts?" Mashirou asked Izuku who knew that roar from all of their previous training sessions. He could be trouble and Eri might not even be here, or maybe she could have been with Ryu. No matter what Izuku needed to move to save his classmate, hoping with everything he had that Eri was safe.

"Let's go Ojirou! Hagakure!"

"Right!"

* * *

A number of villains who had been unfortunate enough to have been close to the blast were currently on fire trying desperately to put themselves out. Other villains were shaken by the display they had just witnessed. Ryu however wasted no time as he quickly slipped off his scarf and unbuckled his black emergency bag.

"Asui! Wrap Eri in my scarf! It's fire proof! You guys need to go now!" Ryu yelled hoarsely as he threw the red scarf and black bag to the others. He was already in a lot of pain given how big that blast was; as every heartbeat and breath being more painful that the last."The bag has a coolant gel for those burns, now go!"

"What about you Kasei?!" Fumikage called out as they began moving from the scene thanks to the support from Hiryu and Neito.

Ryu answered by sucking up more fire from a nearby building, as his quirk began to process the flames to begin healing his internal injuries.

"I've got the home field advantage! KEEP GOING THAT WAY, YOU'RE ACTUALLY NOT THAT FAR FROM THE EXIT! NOW GO! **_GO GODDAMN IT_**!" Ryu roared out pointing to the exit's direction with his left hand, while drawing out a collapsible metal baton with his right.

_'Let's see if all of the training with Kai paid off.'_

"We can't just leave you here ribbit!" Tsuyu called back managing to get her breath after knowing they had been saved.

Ryu knew, they wouldn't leave him behind; not willingly, but he also knew that they were just wasting time and ultimately decided not to give them a choice in the matter, with another blast of flames from his mouth. He formed a wall of fire between them.

"Kasei wh-"

_"**GO!**"_

Fumikage realized that no matter what; this was how life was going to deal the cards, Tsuyu was getting weaker, he was still in pain from the whip attack. And everyone had almost died mere moments ago, Ryu didn't give him much choice in the end.

"Thank you Kasei." He said quietly as he motioned everyone to move on, it was tough choice but it was practical in the end. He moved he somehow felt a tiny bit better, the burns on his back no longer stinging like before, while Tsuyu who also seemed a tad bit more lively than she was moments ago; began to bundle Eri in the red scarf, while Eri looked behind her over Tsuyu shoulder. Fearing for the dark hair boy,Eri had always noticed that out of everyone in class, Ryu had been one of the ones who had tended to keep his distance from her, but despite all of that; he was now here trying to save all of them and ready to fight alone possibly to his death.

Ryu moved quickly managing to get some quick and easy strikes with his baton and martial arts he had learned from one of Japan's top cops. In time however the numbers proved too much with Chronostasis managing to stab Ryu in the leg with what seemed to be hair that ripped out from under his hood. Suddenly feeling slowed as the hair pierced him painfully; the birdman's quirk was starting to take effect.

_'Guess, I'm not going anywhere soon,'_ Ryu thought as he bit down on his lip as the sharp pain began running up and down his body from the stab refusing to cry out from it, instead he decided to stand tall; golden eyes looking forward ready to face his doom. His thoughts turning to those he missed the most.

_'The Michishio's, Takuya, Maki, Himi...Sachi...I'm sorry, I don't think I'm coming back to you guys like I wanted too.'_

"Well well well, boys lookie here," The whip villain said cruelly with a face full glee on her now ashened features. "Look at those pretty yellow eyes he's got, guess we found one of the ones with a bounty on his head."

"What?" Ryu managed to gasp out despite the pain he was in, face in complete disbelief. _'A fucking bounty?!'_

"Don't waste your time on him. Focus on the girl!" Chronostasis ordered to the remaining villains. Only to be met with laughter and push back from the other villains.

"You're not our boss birdman." Another large and imposing villain with large tusks that stuck out of his face said. "Plus the bounty for killing this one is staggering, if you want the little girl pedo, you're on your own. We're here for the cash."

Chronostasis looked at them with frustration, but knew it wasn't smart to pick a fight with this many villains here. Not to mention Eri was with a weakened group, with his quirk; stealing her away and getting her to Overhaul would be much easier now.

"Fine then, enjoy the money." Chronostasis said backing away with a small obnoxious bow, before turning and making a run toward the gap of the flaming wall, releasing his quirk on Ryu as he did.

Ryu seeing this tried to blast him, only for him to receive a great big punch that sent him flying to one the walls of a nearby fake building. Ryu could only hear the deafening ring in his ears, as his vision began to blur that punch had at the very least cracked some of his ribs, possibly might have even broken some of them.

_'That's it for me. I can't shoot out flames like this...guess I'm fucked...'_ Ryu thought as he saw the villains move in for the kill. His vision slowly fading to black his last of thoughts turned to the group he had saved,_ 'I just hope that they got away...I'm sorry guys...I tried.'_

* * *

**Authors Commentary**

This has been both one of the most challenging and yet more exciting chapters I have written so far. Also if your wondering about Midnight, Eraserhead and Vlad. We will be seeing them in the next chapter, which I'm pretty sure will contain the battle we have all been waiting for (Mostly me, because I have been dying to write this fight since the old version)

* Costumes changes: Setsuna's canon outfit is confirmed to be blue...which threw me and several others off that most of us thought it was green (which also makes more sense really) So fuck it, made it green sue me. In the case of Camie and Inasa, since Shinketsu makes Students wear the school combination cap with their costumes (something they don't have here, I wanted them to still sport some headgear that still seemed in character could match well with their costumes. Hence the beret for Camie and The Russian Fur hat or an _**'Ushanka' s**_eemed to best fit nicely with their respective outfits/characters

** Jumping Vampires: Hiryu is the second foreign born student in UA and his Chinese in origin. His in canon costume his based on an Jiangshi (Though this could be translated as hopping zombie or hopping vampire, I've seen both.) You guys may have noticed that I avoid using direct terms like

Senpai/ Kohai (Senior, Junior, Upperclassmen etc.) I often find reading random Japanese (in romaji no less) really grating read fics, while everything else in still in English. I make exceptions for reading fics with Honorfics, but that is as far as I personally extend that annoyance. Anyways when it comes to certain terms, I do my best to translate or adapt to what I can, I'm honestly used to doing this already being bilingual. So hence instead of using Jiangshi, I decided to adapt the word.

Anyways guys that is all for now. Part 2 will be out as quick as I can.

Til next my dear readers and as always with lots of love.

_**-X**_


	23. The Demon Versus The Dragon Part 2

Sorry that took awhile my dear readers! Life been busy! But I do hope the wait was worth it.

This chapter was dozy to write and I had to redo and rewrite a few scenes to make them flow better and even then some parts are a bit jagged to follow, but that is what I get for doing several POVs.

Enjoy.

_**-X**_

* * *

_**Update reviews Chapter 22**_

_**DracoFogg: **_I wouldn't call Alex a "Dead-pool" Character, as Canon MHA has its moments of breaking the fourth wall. I just wanted him to be slightly self-aware, that for the most part, OC's tend to be a very negative rep and it is always an uphill battle for any writer to add OC's without worry._**  
**_

_**patrickthenobleman: **_I like mixing things up, though I do plan carefully on who I want focus on for story reasons, as while as future planning, and I mean it is possible for Katsuki to end-up like that, depending on how his development ends up.

_**D3lph0xL0v3r: **_To be fair Ryu didn't disobey anyone, but given what is task is from them. It would have served him best to let them get attacked, but Ryu is a more complex character with his own morals, ideas and plans. Internal conflict between right and wrong and for what reasons, is something I love exploring, but it is hard to do that with an established canon character, I think is what can make OC's interesting when executed correctly. They're a wild cards that leaves them difficult to predict.

_**Jetstar77: **_Fair critcism given that I do multiple POV's for the story, I did rework the chapter a bit that should make it easier to read so thanks for that feedback. I may or may not be starting the path for those ships, that will be a wait and see approach.

_**inFamousSlyMonkey:**_Katsuki is just being Katsuki, Kashiko needs development, Itsuka is a champ, The Mountain Zone team is solid which was fun to write.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc II: The Incident **_

_**Chapter XXIII: The Demon Versus The Dragon Part 2**_

* * *

Shouto found his situation almost comical to a degree, as the moment he had landed in the Landslide Zone, he had ended up freezing everyone in the area instantly. Unfortunately this also included his homeroom teacher Midnight, who had no warning of what Shouto was about do when he made his move. Upon realizing this, he quickly unfroze his teacher who in turned praised the young man, but warned to be just a bit more careful before acting out with quirk to avoid friendly fire.

"I do hope you have learned your lesson young man," Midnight added with a slightly sultry touch to her voice, as if she was trying to get a reaction from the young lad, who turned simply nodded much to her disappointment.

"Well good, now..." Midnight added looking around at Shouto's handy work, seeing a chance to gain some intelligence from the plenty of the groaning villains here, with a large perverted grin forming on her face.

"Mr. Todoroki are you familiar with role-playing?" She asked as she looked around for the perfect target while pulling out her favorite riding crop.

"I've played Dungeons and Dragons with Tenya and my siblings, that's a role-playing game." Shouto answered bluntly, unsure on where exactly Midnight was going with this.

Midnight in turn began to laugh hard from the unexpected answer, "Well heh, I was thinking more _Good cop, Bad cop_, but I think can work with D&D, come along Mr. Todoroki, I think it's time for a good lesson in gathering intelligence the _fun way_," with that Midnight motioned Shouto to follow as she strutted among the complaining villains, seeing the perfect man to play her games.

"Why hello there big boy~"

* * *

"You're weak little man!" Rappa roared out, swinging wildly with his arms in his futile effort to strike at the nimble Eraserhead, who dodged easily while trying to counter with his quirk and scarf; while he failed to make a dent to the large musclebound man with the small black birdlike mask. He was still fairing better than Vlad King who had been dealing with the black and purple monstrosity since the two large villains made their move; while their bosses remained in the back.

There were still a couple of extra weak villains who would continue to try and surround the two teachers and two large villains, waiting for the perfect chance to strike. Eraserhead couldn't help but wonder why were the bosses themselves staying back? Were they waiting for something or possibly someone?

"I think we might have to try something new Eraser!" Vlad managed growl breathlessly as he managed to stun the Noumu for a moment after a strong strike to the head and backed off, he would have fought Rappa, but his size was the only thing keeping the Noumu from getting the edge on them. Add the two bosses in the back they needed to be wary of and this fight was proving to be a battle of attrition, one they were already on the losing edge. As his blood control quirk proved ineffective against large foes* like the Noumu and Rappa.

Tomura was calm, but also completely furious that All Might wasn't around to die like a good little hero, but Tomura knew he needed to maintain an certain air of calm, especially with his new...friend who seemed to be slowly losing his patience waiting for his prize.

It took all of his skill in convincing Overhaul not to leave to find the girl, instead having his own pawn fetch her for him, but this also meant Overhaul wouldn't budge to attack the two pros. Even now the brat was his priority, so unless All Might or someone with the brat came, Overhaul wouldn't move on his whims.

'Damned yakuza pride and stubbornness,' Tomura thought, while possibly contemplating killing the man himself if needed, after all if he wasn't going to serve his purpose here and what use was he to him? Other than bringing the extra muscle to the play in his game.

The answer came when the space behind him began to bend and warp behind him, Kurogiri reappeared with a slightly more disheveled look on him, his armor was dented and his suit appeared to be cut in odd places. Overhaul turned slowly to look at the situation to see how Tomura would react.

"Why are you here Kurogiri shouldn't you be at the entrance; guarding it?" Tomura said now struggling to keep his composure, as he could already take a guess on why he was all the way back out here; earlier than planned.

"I'm sorry Tomura Shigaraki, but one of the students, a fast one managed to get away to get back-up," Kurogiri responded nervously, knowing just how volatile the blue haired man could for a moment looked like he had completely snapped as he began scratching at his neck rapidly; a nervous trick Kurogiri thought that Tomura had out grown a few years ago. Tomura continued his tick while producing an almost nervous bout of laughter, before he suddenly stopped moving all together.

With a slightly twist of his neck that would have seemed very painful, Tomura faced Overhaul without taking a breath staring at him and began to cackle silently; only loud enough for Overhaul to hear and to know that danger was coming.

"Overhaul," Tomura spoke as he continued to stare at his villainous companion with those blood red eyes that were almost hidden in his hand mask. "It's now or never, we need to start killing these worthless pros now and leave before their back-up arrives,otherwise your little brat will only become harder to reach."

Overhaul looked the man with his own silent glare, had been difficult to cooperate with the man so far and even now he was sorely tempted to kill Tomura every now and then, but he also knew that he was right. This was his chance to get Eri back, now that back-up was coming, his chance was beginning to slip away.

"Very well, Shigaraki, I suppose it is time for us to step in," Overhaul said in a flat voice, as the two men began their move toward the battle with the two veteran educators.

The two pros had switched opponents during, as Vlad could keep up with the giant man without the use of his quirk, that could be risky with a man of Rappa's size, unlike the Noumu who didn't seem to feel pain. A few of the weaker villains had also managed to jump in, only to his knocked out by either a pro, or one of the large villains; the Noumu often due to accidental friendly fire and Rappa who hated weaklings getting his way of a good fight.

"Vlad! They're coming!" Eraserhead yelled out to his co-worker, seeing Tomura and Overhaul charge at them, Vlad saw this and quickly adjusted his angle, moving Rappa in front of him into order to block Overhaul, thinking that the man wouldn't harm his subordinate. Rappa laughed as he knew what Vlad King was doing, it wouldn't stop his boss.

Unfortunately for one of the weak villains who had happened to be front of Overhaul's way not knowing that man cared little for those who did not serve him, would be the example of what exactly Overhaul could do to a man with his quirk. With one quick swipe of his hands, the villain in question was reduced to nothing but a bloody mist of gore, bile and entrails that left the two veteran pros momentary stunned by the power the man with the beak mask had.

Rappa though disappointed that his fun had come to an end with Vlad King, knew that his boss was in no mood to indulge his normally more violent antics, and quickly side-stepped Vlad while managing to strike the man pushing him closer to within Overhaul's reach. Vlad in a desperate attempt to stop the man, used his quirk on the smaller man, unfortunately for him, it only proved to make things worse, as everything went to hell the moment Vlad's blood touched Overhaul's outreached hands.

The pain that Vlad felt as his right arm was obliterated; was almost enough to make him black out. As the blood started to pour out of stump at just above where his elbow once was, Vlad had could barely maintain enough focus to keep himself from bleeding out using both his remaining arm and his blood control to stop himself from going into shock. Unlike Overhaul who continued moving until he was right over Vlad hands moving toward his head.

"VLAD!" Vlad heard Eraserhead yell out at him, with his quirk active to save his co-worker, leaving himself wide open to the Noumu.

Overhaul was caught off guard, when he touched Vlad face with his hand, but the man didn't die, simply remained their until he was met with a large explosion to his face sending him skidding back as the beak like mask as blown away form his face.

"FUCK OFF SHITBIRD!" Katsuki roared out, before using another explosion to launch himself away from the yakuza boss.

"Sorry for the wait!" Lemillion exclaimed before punching Tomura out of the way making the Noumu drop a severely injured Eraserhead to protect his master, leaving as slightly out of breath Suneater to begin his own assault on Rappa who had been caught off guard by the ash blond's explosive assault.

Vlad could barely speak as he felt himself being pulled away from the fight,feeling that something had started to coil and wrap around his body.

"Shiozaki?" He managed to say as he could see the familiar green vines of his student, coiling around him and Eraserhead.

"We got you sir," A lisp filled voice said to him, as he could see the purple clad short boy with rounded hair help secure him with the vines, while Setsuna and the lanky boy from Class A with the odd elbows were securing Eraserhead.

"Leave me here," Vlad groaned out, too weak to yell at the the reckless behavior of the first years, "get to safety."

"Can't sir, a lot of us got split out by the misty guy, we just barely got here from the Collapsed Zone." Minoru retorted, before giving Ibarra a thumb's up to let her know to begin pulling her Homeroom teacher up. As he was being pulled up, Vlad could see Katsuki, Mirio, and Tamaki fighting along aside a set of doubles of themselves, mostly focus themselves with dodging than attacking, they seemed to be trying to buy as much time as possible.

A quick glance from the corner of his eye and he could see Camie making illusions to support the offensive and making fakes to confuse their enemies. Vlad couldn't help, but feel a little proud of his students.

"Mr. Vlad!" Ibarra exclaimed worried seeing her teacher's condition, once she had pulled him up to the edge, before being surround by some of the other first years, who had remained in the Central Plaza. Vlad had to admit given the circumstances the first years were doing well, as they managed to get in him to safety only to be met by Mezou.

Help was coming, they only needed to wait a bit longer.

* * *

Kashiko threw the round device over head seeing it splash and begin to sink into the depths of the Flood Zone as the villains began to scatter afraid that the device could have been a weapon,while everyone else on the boat watched Kashiko with baited breath, as she began to fiddle around with her wrist mounted screens that augmented her quirk's abilities.

_'Come on please work,'_ She pleaded mentally, the device she had thrown was a sensor that used echolocation to find people in the darkness, almost like sonar, but she wasn't sure it if could be used for the water, she was a gamble, but she had nothing to lose at the moment and everything to gain. The screen was still calibrating and loading the data, making Kashiko sweat.

Finally after a few more seconds, the screen flickered as it came to life as her quirk began to process a highly detailed 3D map of the boat and the water surrounding it, including the locations of all of the villains.

"IT WORKED!" She cheered, gaining instant praise from the boys that was with her.

"Holy shit," Sen exclaimed seeing the hologram chart with the dots that were moving representing the villains movements.

"Yeah that is awesome Sekigai!" Kosei cheered, while Yoarashi gave a hearty laugh.

"Okay!" Shino began as he studied the chart carefully, "Inasa, think you can make a whirlpool with your winds here?"

Inasa looked at his vice-president and then the chart before giving him thumb's up. "Easily! Only problem is getting the villains in one place, seeing how they're still all spread around." He added; pointing at the moving dots.

"Yeah, I think I can still serve as a decoy and get them all to follow me to the center." Shino answered now pointing at the spot where he thought the whirlpool would have the most impact.

"Whoa, you think you could out swim a whirlpool man?" Sen asked concerned about his classmate and his possible arrogance.

"Nope, but I don't need to out swim it, I just need Tsubaraba to make a platform I can jump to from the water just before Inasa makes it," Shino responded gravely, his quirk allowed him to manipulate water around him, enhancing his swimming abilities but he still had his limits.

"That's a heavy risk man," Kosei interjected knowing a large part involved making the right size platforms to hold everyone in place.

"Indeed, but unless anyone has a better idea, it's what we got." Shino answered, making everyone frown, before a sudden groan and a crash slammed against the middle of the ship splitting it in two.

"SHIT!" Sen exclaimed as he and the rest of the makeshift team grabbed on the ship as it slowly began to sink, as the villains began to proclaim their boredom with the waiting game.

"IT'S NOW OR NEVER GUYS!" Kashiko yelled out, while slipping out her wrist mounted screens, handing one to Shino and Yoarashi respectively. "USE IT TO COORDINATE WITH EACH OTHER!"

"THANKS! TSUBARA START MAKING PLATFORMS, INASA TAKE TO THE AIR, KAIBARA YOU WITH ME IN THE WATER OR WITH THEM ON THE PLATFORM?" Shino began to order out while placing the screen on his left arm.

"I'LL STICK TO THE AIR FOR NOW, BUT I'LL JUMP IN, IF I SEE YOU GET INTO TROUBLE!" Sen answered as he and Kashiko jumped up into the first platform that Kosei made in the middle of the air, while Yoarashi took flight unable to fit the screen into his arm, instead holding it in his hand.

"RIGHT THEN, LET'S GO!" Shino proclaimed before expertly diving back into the water from the edge of the sinking ship.

He could see some of the villains already giving chase to him, while a handful of villains was still focusing on his team in the air. Shino swam hard, while keeping an eye on the chart, thankful that it was waterproof. Yoarashi was already in position, and could see the platform that the rest were on, he just needed to signal them. Shino dodged a few more villains, before managing to kick one off that had caught his leg, before breaking through the surface.

"INASA COUNTDOWN 15 SECONDS!" Shino yelled out before taking a quick breath of air, and seeing that Yoarashi began to whip up air violently. Shino dived as deep as he could hoping to lure as many villains as possible, as well to be able to build up speed to make a long jump from the water to the air platform Kosei made above them, while counting down mentally.

At nine seconds, he quickly doubled back and began to shoot straight up to the surface.

_'7,6,5,4,3'_

He was almost at the surface when he suddenly felt a villain grab his leg awkwardly and slipped out just as quickly. Shino broke through the surface of the water leaping out like a confused dolphin as he overshot his jump and missed the platform as the three who already on it tried to reach for him. His slippy hands costing his grip on both the air platform and his teammates hands.

Yoarashi however continued launching the whipping air into the water causing the whirlpool to begin dragging most of the villains down and Shino down with it as he splashed back first into the water. The team could only look down in horror as their classmate began to be dragged down into the depths with several villains going down with him.

Shino thought this was the end for him, knowing that if the whirlpool didn't drown him, the remaining villains would, he felt his head break through the water wall where the air was being forced down being able to see Yoarashi above him. He tried to yell but his voice was drowned out by the strong winds that also threatened to force him back under, until suddenly the winds stopped and the water suddenly whipped violently upward, as the water refilled the spot launching everyone at the whirlpool's eye upward. Shino slammed head first into a villain knocking him out instantly before flying into the air, only to be caught in Yoarashi's arms.

"I GOT YOU REP!" Yoarashi managed to yell out, flying further away from the water, seeing that help was coming, in the form of Shouto Todoroki stepping into the water freezing a large portion of the artificial lake with every step, with some villains landing violently on the ice, as Midnight began putting them to sleep with her own quirk.

Much to the relief of the remaining team, their plan had gone wrong, but some quick thinking and some back-up proved their salvation. As Yoarashi and the team landed on the ice, careful not to break it and fall into the water, they met up with Midnight and Shouto.

"I'm so glad to see you guys alive, shame that Mizuoji got the rough of it though," Midnight said before grabbing Kashiko and everyone else from class B and drawing them into a hug, while Shouto continued his work of freezing the lake villains, who started to break through the ice, chilled to the bone and coming up for air.

Kashiko and Kosei both struggling not to cry, while Sen tried to keep it cool, but he had to admit of being scared for a moment or two after seeing his vice-president almost die. Yoarashi however simply laughed despite the situation they had managed to get out alive.

"Over here!" They all heard a voice say above them, as a frantic looking Nejire descending down on them.

Midnight immediately broke off the reunion to get a status report from Nejire, a report that made Midnight shocked to hear.

"Everyone except for Todoroki, head toward the Mountain Zone and meet-up with Yaoyorozu's group there, Nejire guide them and then join up with us in the Central Plaza." Midnight ordered all of the humor completely lost in her voice, not realizing just how bad the situation had gotten.

* * *

After a number of minutes of still navigating through the burning fake city, Izuku and company had managed to arrive to find several villains arguing and fighting with each other while spying a number of bodies on the ground, some on fire; others seemed like they had been whipped to death. -

"The cash is mine boys!" A fair haired villain with a whip yelled out her acid green eyes full of malice, threatening the other villains.

"You think, we're just gonna let you collect the bounty solo, after trying to kill us ya bitch?" A large villain with large gray tusked argued back with a few small goons backing him up, while remaining were vary of the female's flaming whip.

Izuku and Mashiraou quickly tucked themselves into a corner while Tooru scouted ahead making her way closer to the villains trying to take a head count; thanks to her invisibility, as she got closer her nose as their seemed to be the faintest smell of cinnamon waffling in the air. It was then it saw a familiar costume; Ryu's limp body was slumped aganist the wall. She stopped her count and made her way back to her makeshift team.

"Guys! Kasei's there...I think he's really hurt or...worse," Tooru whispered worriedly to Mashiraou and Izuku, making the two teens scramble up a quick plan of action in the hopes of saving their classmate.

"They're distracted, I say jump in with a flash from Hagakure and go for quick knock-outs." Izuku suggested in a low voice; his anger building knowing that his classmate could be dead or dying without back-up; he felt the need to save him as quickly as possible. "Sound good to you guys?"

"Agreed, but we should leave at least one of the villains conscious to interrogate and figure out what exactly happened here," Mashiraou injected with Izuku agreeing that he had a good point, while Tooru whispered her approval and made her way back to the villains.

Izuku and Mashiraou both waited for a few moments while adjust themselves to spring into action as quickly as possible, waiting for the signal that was coming. "I'll take the big one Ojirou."

Mashiraou looked at Izuku for a moment when he saw the fresh anger in the green haired boy's face, in the short time that he knew him, he didn't think Izuku could be capable of making such a face and found it wise not to disagree with him and simply nodded.

"LIGHT REFRACTION!" They heard her yelled out, as a large flash of light appeared followed by a number of screams from the now blinded villains as Izuku and Mashiraou quickly jumped out of their cover to begin their assault of the remaining expertly jabbed and tail whipped his way though the small crowd of villains, while Izuku was quick to jump on the biggest of them, pinning the large man down, slamming his slightly clawed fist next to the man's head cracking the street.

"Talk," Izuku said with a low growl, between the heat, the frustration of not finding Eri and now being able confirm his classmate's limp body only a few feet away against the wall. Anger was really starting to get the better of him, making the large tusked man open to talk, as thanks to Ryu's face made it easy to picture his father in Ryu's place.

Tooru slowly moved to Ryu's location, as Mashiraou began to tie up the villains and Izuku was interrogating the large villain. She began to tremble nervously as she got closer the smell of cinnamon getting stronger. She began looking over him; discovering that he seemed to be bleeding profusely from his nose and mouth as his face was heavily bruised, his black costume that was missing its signature red scarf, had large tears that barely hid large bleeding cuts in addition to being covered in dust that featured shoe and boot prints, as though he had been stomped on by the villains in question to an effort to finish him off.

"Kasei?" She whispered as she placed her hands on him, hoping for signs of life, and after a few nerve racking seconds, she found a faint pulse along with a very faint and labored wheezing of Ryu still breathing as painful as it sounded to her.

"How is he doing?" Mashiraou asked, looking over Ryu now once he secured the villains together, fearing the worst as Tooru had been silent the whole time.

"He's alive, but barely," Tooru whispered back as tears had begun welling up in her invisible eyes, they were still kids who were barely two weeks into their training as Pro-Heroes, and now she was already seeing one of her classmates now possibly knocking on death's door, after being violently assaulted alone without help.

"WHERE DID THEY GO?!" Izuku suddenly roared out slamming down his fist against the street sending a large amount of wind pressure that whipped violently, making the two teens look at him in surprise, not knowing that Izuku could ever sound like that.

"Th-there!" The large villain pointed down the street voice full of fear as if he had just seen the Devil himself, "They're being chased by a short guy in a bird mask who had joined up with us! He kept talking about getting some little girl that the other students had! That's all I know!"

Izuku looked at the large villain before knocking him out with a vicious jab, when he secured him. He moved to check on Ryu's condition and update his classmates on what he gathered.

"Eri was here," Izuku began with expression of sadness and anger. "Along with Asui, Tokoyami and possibly a few from class B. Seems like Kasei saved them, before making them leave him behind to buy them time...We need to move quickly, they're still being chased by a villain."

"What about Kasei?" Tooru piped up, fearing that Izuku meant to possibly abandon him.

"Ojirou and I can both work together to carry him while still being able to move fast, you can go on a head of us Hagakure and keep an eye out for other villains," Izuku answered her, as he motioned Mashiraou to try to hoist Ryu from under his arms. It was here that Izuku noticed that familiar smell of cinnamon that reminded him of Katsuki, but that was the just the thing. Katsuki wasn't here, Izuku would have known for sure if Katsuki would have been here given his best friend's temperament.

Ryu began to groan painfully as he was lifted up by the two teens, his body dragged as they began to make their way to the exit.

"Just hold on Kasei, we'll being getting you help soon," Mashiraou muttered to the dark haired boy, unsure if Ryu was even able to hear him, but doing his best to at least give the guy some positive thoughts. While Izuku kept silent, as several thoughts began running though his mind.

The most troublesome being what he said about someone in a bird mask that seemed hellbent on getting the little girl. Could this villain be one of the bird people that Eri feared? The ones that were the source of her night terrors? The ones that made her a human test subject? If so Izuku knew that if they were here, they would have to deal with him. He wouldn't let them get her. Izuku didn't realize as these thoughts continued he was slowly tensing up which included his grip on Ryu's right arm. Slowly Ryu began to groan louder before almost screaming in pain, making Tooru turning around worried about her classmate's condition getting worse.

"Midoriya! You're holding Kasei too tightly!" She exclaimed, seeing Izuku's arms tense up putting unneeded pressure on Ryu's already damaged arms and snapping Izuku out of his thoughts.

"Oh no, I'm sorry Kasei!" Izuku almost squeaked, before giving his grip some slack, making Ryu go quiet again. Tooru however wasn't having it after seeing Izuku's face moments ago.

"Midoriya...go on ahead of us," Tooru started knowing full well that Izuku was most likely worried out of his mind because of the Eri still being in possible danger.

"Wait but," Izuku started before being cut off by Tooru again.

"But nothing Midoriya! I know you're worried about Eri! I think we all are, I'm nowhere near as strong as you or Ojirou and our classmates needs help! I can carry Kasei just please go on ahead you can beat the bad guys if there are any ahead of us right?"

Izuku looked at Mashiraou who didn't seemed to have a straight answer, but instead answered with, "I'm good with any choice you make Class Rep, but I'm worried about Eri and the rest of our classmates too."

Tooru managed to pulled Izuku aside, and take over lifting Ryu albeit struggling to keep the tall teen's weight up.

"Go help our friends Midoriya, we'll catch up soon," Tooru finishing up, while using Ryu's right hand to point toward the exit's direction. Izuku looked at this two classmates and then to his father's unconscious doppelganger, before agreeing and beginning his run toward the exit allowing his quirk to top out at his costume's limit.

* * *

In the Mountain Zone Nejire had Momo and her team stay put, while she would lead others back to the Mountain Zone from the air, while she headed to the Flood Zone.

Ochako looked on, they had finally secured all of the unconscious or welded villains making sure that none could recover to sneak attack them. Momo had made a small set of binoculars for each of the team to look out at various Zones, some however watched battle of the Central Plaza continue and seeing that some of their teachers had been injured severely.

Ochako however would used hers to continue to look for Eri, knowing that the moment she saw her was either alone or in danger, she would not hesitate to disobey the order to stay put so she could go after the small girl she had come to care for so much.

'Eri please be okay,' she prayed as she continued to scan the battlefield for her.

* * *

Eijirou looked behind him, at the entrance of the Downpour Zone, as he and his friends had made it outside, free from the torrents that had left them all completely soaked to the bone. While still worried over his upperclassman's safety, seeing the battle from the Central Plaza from here, he suspected that back-up wasn't going to come anytime soon like he had promised.

"How are you holding up, Kendou?" He could hear Mina ask Itsuka, who had gone pale from either the blood loss or the cold, or even both, leaning on the pink teen shivering while still holding on to her injured hand that was wrapped with scraps of her costume.

"I-i'm do-doing bet-better now, that we're..out of th-the-there." She managed to answer, as Tetsutetsu did his best to find her a comfy place for her to sit down and rest up.

"Sorry Kendou, but it's the best spot I found," Tetsutetsu said, offering spot by the sign that read. **"Downpour Zone" **

"The spot there is pretty warm right since it's right by the glowing lights."

"Tha-thank y-you." She breathed, as the sliver haired boy guided her the spot. Mina relieved of her charged, turned to look at her red haired companion, remembering when he had once had his hair jet black and facing down, before they had become _Horn Buddies_. It still amazed her to see just how much Eijirou had changed in about an year, a transformation that she had to admit wasn't displeasing to the eye as she scanned his muscular back, before noticing that he seemed to be tensing up and shaking.

"Kiri?" She called out to him, making him turn revealing the tears that had been welling up in his eyes.

* * *

Poni arose with a bump on her head, being awoken from the rain that had been pouring on her, she was disoriented and struggling to get up, cold and alone.

_'Where am I?'_ She thought as she found her barrings of being in an alleyway._ 'Wasn't I suppose to be training? Ow...'_She noticed that she was in her Hero Costume, which wasn't allowed to be used outside of School for the time being she knew this. She began to walk to the edge of the alleyway finding herself in the rainy streets, completely alone or so she thought at first as she could hear something loud in the distance like a clashing of metal upon metal. She was still having trouble reading the street names given that they were all written in Kanji.

_'Why does Japanese need to be so hard to learn, and who came up with needing to basically learn 3 alphabets*?'_ She continued to think while feeling annoyed, making her way to the noise while trying to fight the pain that continued to pulse down her head.

Alex was getting tired in his fight against the blade villain, his quirk was beginning to cause a strain in his eyes, add the the general fatigue and sore limbs thanks to the extra gear he was wearing without a chance to remove it and he was fighting a losing battle. The blade villain may not have been able to hit him so far, but the guy wasn't a push over matching up with his speed even when using his Blink quirk.

"You're getting slower boy! So much for me being a so called 'discount Stain'."

The villain mocked as he continue to slash and hack, while Alex answered with blocking with his armored gloves, unable to retort due to him trying to maintain a current rhythm of circular breathing, something that could be interrupted with one of his usual smart ass quips. He went for a punch when he saw something knew that made him back-off and accidentally made him slip on the street, landing right on his ass. Only to have a knife thrown at him striking him in the shoulder from the blade villain who had turned around to flee or so Alex thought at the moment.

A set of flying horns seemed to be chasing the blade villain who simply kept knocking them aside going after a new target, Alex discovered that that Poni was still in the Downpour Zone thanks to his one of his quirk's passive abilities was being able to see farther than average and could see the blade villain barring down on her, Alex removed his mask to allow his quirk's max distance to be used and focused on where Poni who seemed to be disoriented at the villain that was making his way to her. He had one shot at this betting it all with one of the biggest gambles of his life, a choice he knew would have consequences as he began to focus his quirk while pulling out the knife from his shoulder and dropping it on the ground.

Poni had missed and lost the element of surprise from her horn cannon feature of her quirk, what she didn't expect was the speed the villain was able run as he made his way toward her, her headache only making things worse as he tried to regain control of her horns. Fear started to seep into Poni as she could see the wrath and malice that radiated off the man's face.

"Die!" The villain roared out swing down his blades on the confused and terrified Poni, only to have Alex appear right in front of her shielding her from him. She screamed as one of blades stabbed right through her fellow American. For a moment it seemed like time stood still for Poni as her brain began to process her senior collapsing with the villain right in front of her.

A blade had gotten him dead center in the belly; while the other blade had been blocked by Alex's left hand, while Alex's right had swung out so hard having built up during his quirk's jump to come swinging in full force slammed right into the villain's left cheek.

_**SLAM, SNAP! **_

Unfortunately the build-up made had been too strong as the villain's neck completely turned _**one-hunderd and eighty degrees**_ snapping his neck and killing him instantly.

"**Poni...**" Alex managed to grasp out in English, remembering that she had trouble speaking Japanese when they had spoken briefly after the battle trial. "**I'm sorry, just leave me here..." **He added before trying to point down the street only to be surprised by the appearance of Eijirou and Mina running down the street.

"**Help him please!**" Poni shouted at the two not realizing she had gone back to English as she tried to comfort Alex instead of leaving him here, tears running down her face hands completely shaking as Alex was already starting to be losing consciousness.

"Springfield!" Eijirou yelled out kneeling down to his senior while Mina stopped a few feet away look down in horror at the scene as blood began to pool heavily under Alex. Mixing with the water and spreading fast.

"Ah fuck me this hurts, damn it Rockman...why you back here?...I told you I had it covered," Alex managed to say with a small grin his vision fading quickly.

"I'm sorry!" Eijirou pleaded his senior, "Back-up wasn't coming yet! I..I couldn't just stand there...but it looks like we're too late...I'm so sorry."

"Donno what you are being sorry abou...I just did...what a hero should do...right? Just go...and be safe and calm down...I...ain't dying just yet." Alex answered trying everything to ease his junior's worries, he knew the wound was bad, but if he got treated soon, there was still a chance at recovery. "You just watch me you three...I'm still owed cash and I still not dying til I get my money...how else am I gonna bribe the reaper when she comes for me for real ya know...?" Alex finished up with a small chuckle as the darkness came over his eyes.

* * *

Tsuyu and her crew were relieved to have made it outside of the Conflagration Zone being able to breath without the excessive heat and fire that had smoked and singed all of them.

Neito and Hiryu had both gone out ahead of the rest; to make sure their weren't any villains waiting for them nearby the entrance way and to find some back-up. While Kinoko was starting to dab the coolant gel she had found in Ryu's black emergency bag on Tsuyu's, Eri's and Fumikage's burns, while leaving the small bag with the 2 EQ pens, inside of it alone by the enterance.

"Thanks ribbit," Tsuyu managed to wheeze out, leaning against the wall of the Zone they had just escaped from, she was dangerously dehydrated, but in slightly better spirits. Fumikage however simply walked away trying to survey the sight at the Central Plaza as Dark Shadow projected from him; it was small and timid due to its exposure from all the light earlier.

Eri stood nearby looking out for Izuku and or Ochako still, while clutching on to the bright red scarf she got from Ryu, it had a faint cinnamon smell that reminded her of Katsuki and served to comfort her.

Still now she was still trying her best to keep calm. Overhaul was back here to take her back. She couldn't help but wonder if this was all her fault. They had come back to get her back and started hurting everyone to get her back. She remembered her last night terror she had before coming here. It seemed like the fairy tale was over; her dreams of a family were slowly being dashed Overhaul would never let her go free. Ryu had already paid the price to simply buy her time, now she feared on who else would die for her in vain.

She heard a scream was met with the sight of Chronostasis injecting Kinoko with one EQ pens that she had left in the black bag, preventing her from using her quirk as the drug began to take effect. He Held her hostage with a small knife held up to her neck once he dropped the syringe pen. The second pen on his other hand that held her in a choke hold.

"Nice of you to leave me this gift," Chronostasis mocked as Tsuyu and Fumikage both tried to make a stand, but both were still weak to even make much of a move. "Hand over Eri and no else needs to die like your fire friend inside."

Eri's heart sank at those words; Ryu did die to save her. She looked at Fumikage who moved to stand in front of her ready to shield her as well.

"Never," Fumikage said standing tall, even without Dark Shadow he refused to surrender instead trying a different tactic. "Take me hostage instead."

"Or me ribbit!"

"I don't have a use for either you punks," Chronostasis answered before his hair quirk suddenly shot out stabbing Tsuyu and Fumikage respectively and slowing them down as he quirk began to take effect. "And since you won't cooperate, I guess I'll just start killing you and just claim Eri, beside I got insurance to make sure she doesn't go nuts with her crazy quirk." Chronostasis continued with a dry laugh while tapping on the second EQ pen before motioning the knife closer to Kinoko's neck.

"NO!" Eri screamed out, tears running down her face. "I'll come...just please Chrono no more hurting anyone else please."

"Eri please...no," Fumikage pleaded trying to struggle through the slow down of Chronostasis's quirk, as Eri walked past him, she gave him a small pat on his pant leg and said."Thank you Mr. Fumi for being nice to me."

Before walking toward Chronostasis who quickly threw Kinoko violently to the ground; her head slamming on the floor as she landed and snatched up Eri.

"ERI!" Fumikage roared out as he began to fight the quirk harder, walking forward trying to reach Eri, while Tsuyu shot out with her tongue only to met with a violent slash of Chornostasis's knife, before turning to hold the knife up to Eri's neck.

"Don't even think about it, and don't tempt me, my boss could actually fix the little brat if I stab her." Chronostasis threatened, "Trust me it wouldn't the first time she would have tasted death."

The cold words left the two animal teems stunned; they knew that Eri had been through a lot, but now this seemed to be at a whole another level. Chronostasis as if to add salt on the wound mocked them one last with.

"Now say good-bye to your little friends Eri."

Eri looked at the two teens weeping as she simply waved at them, before Chronostasis, released his quirk's effect and used the same hair to almost vault over Fumikage's head and ran down to the Central Plaza. Upon their freedom, both animal teens collapsed completely spent.

"I'm sorry Eri...I'm so sorry," Fumikage pleaded as he tried to fight the tears welling down his eyes, seeing Tsuyu was doing the same.

Only to be met with a similar green hair teen by the entrance way, with an anger in his eyes that chilled Fumikage to the bone.

* * *

The battle in the central plaza had been a mixed bag for both sides. Katsuki in an insane attempt had Minoru trap the Noumu with his sticky balls, only to the ash blond teen to jump on the Noumu's face and let loose with not only his two gauntlets, but two maxed out blasts at once. The result was the Noumu's head getting blown off and launching Katsuki back; arms completely burned and broken as his gear shattered unable to handle the strain of such a destructive force.

On the other hand Tamaki was left concussed by Rappa's extensive assault only to be met with Mezou and Rikidou both jumping into the fray, While Overhaul and Tomura both tried hard to kill Mirio who had managed to keep himself safe thanks to his quirk.

"Just a little longer!" Mezou roared out, trying to restrain Rappa down, while a sugar rushed Rikidou kept slamming down on Rappa's head with everything he had, with an illusion of Camie appearing next to the two with frantic warning.

"DODGE TENTAFAM!" She yelled before disappearing with a tiny Pop,as the real Camie was busy taking care of an enraged Katsuki who despite his arms condition still wanted to fight; Mezou quickly grabbed the Sugarman and pulled back as a large coating of ice began to coat Rappa and a familiar purple mist began surrounding the air, making the giant man sleepy. As Shouto and Midnight made their presence known, on the battlefield, Tomura and Overhaul seemed to be on the ropes. Surrounded with a headless Noumu and Rappa sleeping on the job it seemed like it was over for the two.

Or it would have been until Chronostasis's laugh echoed in the plaza as appeared making everyone freeze the moment they saw Eri was being held hostage as he slowly made his way toward his boss, knife by Eri's neck. Mirio forced himself to pull back, seeing the EQ Pen on the man's hand and knowing what that could do to anyone.

"ERI!" Katsuki roared out as explosion began to pop out of his bloody and broken hands.

Tomura laughed knowing the heroes wouldn't dare make a move with the child being held hostage. While Overhaul looked at Eri with a strangely soft expression that only hardened as they got ever closer.

* * *

At the Mountain Zone, Ochako was struggling hard against her classmates who were desperately trying to stop her from going down there, flailing violently enough that she almost accidentally hit her teammates more than once.

"LET ME GO! ERI! _ERI!_" She screamed refusing to listen to the pleas of her team. Eri was in danger and refused to simply stand there and let it happen not without a fight.

"URARAKA PLEASE CALM DOWN!" Momo pleaded only to be met with another punch that she had to dodge, as Ochako cried out.

"SHES BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH! I WON'T! I CAN'T LET IT KEEPING HAPPENING! NOT TO HER! NOW _**LET ME GO PLEASE**_!"

* * *

Once Chronostasis had gotten close enough, he began speaking to his boss.

"Looks like she made friends here Overhaul." While Eri quickly shook her hand trying to lie, knowing what Chronostasis was trying to do.

"No! Just no! I don't have friends! Just please don't hurt them! I promise I'll be good, just no please..."

Overhaul's expression completely changed as he gave Eri the most bone chilling smile she had ever seen. It had no warmth or kindness. It was the smile that warned her that danger was coming.

"Shigaraki step back a moment and have the black mist man get ready to leave with us," He said flatly before putting his hands on the ground collapsing the floor with a loud crash not letting the man a chance to respond. "It seemed I need to teach a lesson to Eri about lying, one SHE WILL NEVER FORGET!"

Everyone tried to hold on as the ground broke apart and shook almost like an Earthquake no one being able to notice that warp gates had opened next to all of the small time villains along with the dead Noumu and Rappa as Overhaul's hands reached for them. A large cloud of dust rose up covering the villains from view.

Strange sounds began to be heard, popping, twisting and crunching as the ground seemed to be molding into something else. When the sounds stopped, they could hear something massive had begin stirring; moving slowly only a large blast of wind to appear as a massive claw blew the dust away revealing, a large monster had appeared with Overhaul at its head.

The man had infused himself with the villains including his own men. Eri was held in one of the claws. It was a monster that could only be described as a Demon. Giant with four giant arms and four legs with a long vicious looking spiked tail, its face was like the Noumu only it appeared painfully stretched resulting in looking even more monstrous when its maw would open revealing nothing but a void as dark as a starless night sky.

Tomura couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Talk about a multi-stage boss fight!"

The Demon Overhaul began to laugh as he seemed to be waiting for someone to challenge him, before he would start killing without regard as it was the only way he believed that Eri would learn to never disobey him again. Some wanted to move but others feared that making a move would endanger Eri's safety, after all just how could they save her from his grasp?

Eri looked on, still pleading Overhaul to show mercy. She didn't want to be the cause of their pain, to have them suffer because of her.

**"LET HER GO!"**

Everyone heard a voice say, one Eri knew all too well as she Izuku began walking down at a steady pace his heart beating rapidly with fear. A fear for Eri's safety as nothing else mattered to him at the moment. Izuku didn't know if he could win, but he swore that he would keep her safe. His eyes filled with a real type of malice as made everyone nervous, a malice that only grew when Izuku saw Katsuki.

Katsuki looked at Izuku for a moment, when he realized that Izuku was pushing the limit. The limit that Hisashi had warned them all of those years ago. The Secret of Dragon Shift. Katsuki knew that everything could go to hell here and now. He tried pull himself away from the grip of Hanta and Camie, yelling at his best friend with all he had.

"IZUKU! DON'T DO IT!"

Izuku could hear his friend's yelling, but couldn't make out what he was saying, his focus remained to the beast in front of him. Holding on to the little girl he had come to love with everything, with a desire to protect her from the terrors that plagued her. Now the terror was here. Overhaul looked at the boy with curious eyes, an heroic idiot no doubt. But could he had been the one who had taken care of Eri since her escape? Izuku stared right back at Overhaul both of them; coming to terms who they both where to Eri.

The Demon Overhaul her tormentor.

The Knight Izuku her protector.

_**A Knight slays the Demon no? **_

**"LET ERI GO NOW!"** Izuku roared out again, feeling something tugging in the back of his head trying to get out.

"Please leave me," Eri weeped not wanting Izuku to get hurt, only for Overhaul to hear her.

"Midoriya get back here!" Someone called out, Izuku unable to focus on who had been called out for him as his ears began filling with a small buzzing noise. His whole focus was on one thing.

_**A Knight saves the Princess no?**_

Overhaul decided enough was enough and decided to make Izuku the first example of what was to come as the claw came baring down. He roared out one last guttural scream as Eri screamed pleading for him to stop.

"I'M DONE PLAYING GAMES DIE!"

"MIDORIYA!"

"IZUKU!"

Izuku looked up at the massive claw coming down on him like a hammer. A small grin growing on his face as he spoke his answer.

**"Okay then...No more games."**

_**Demon does not fear a Knight for he is no equal to the Demon. **_

_**A Dragon is said to be a Demon's equal, but it still shows no fear to one of the same power. **_

_**Yet what if The Knight was also a Dragon what then? **_

_**What if The Knight was also a Demon what then? **_

_**No matter the choice the answer remains the same.**_

_**The Demon will learn fear. **_

A large flash light appeared shining bright as a large wave of air pressure cascaded upon the area. Shouto moved to produce a large ice shield to protect everyone behind him. The ice shattered and cracked as Shouto continued to add to it, coating himself with ice. He knew what was coming, like his father had warned him about Izuku's possible defect. All Shouto could at the moment was continue protecting his classmates from the power at the was about to be unleashed.

Izuku appeared as his costume slowly came off, as his skin now coated with shiny emerald green scales that was hard as tempered steel, with large bone-white plate scales covering key parts of his chest and arms. Hands and feet were clawed, his body grew nearly a foot taller as his limbs tensed up with muscle and sinew. The scales had reached all the way up to the edge of his jaw line, his smile containing razor sharp teeth, hair had stiffened up and his eyes were pools of molten Gold within a sea of darkness.

He had side-stepped the claw, taking one step, then a second before rushing into battle with a great big.

_**ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR **_

* * *

The final battle of the USJ had begun.

Overhaul looked surprised at the change of the boy's features, only for the surprise to turning into shock as Izuku zipped pass his head, slashing Overhaul across the face, followed by the large amount of wind pressure blinding him. Soon Overhaul began feeling nothing but pain as Izuku zipped and zoomed at a blistering breakneck speed, punching, slashing, stabbing with his claws, moving too fast and too close for Overhaul to counter attack all while that damned air pressure pushed him back with every strike.

Yet Overhaul still had an ace up his sleeve, the Noumu's regenerate abilities along with those of his own quirk where kicking in.

Even Izuku who was operating on completely on instinct knew he couldn't keep this up for long, as his claws were already getting stained and cracked with every blow, muscles screamed in pain with every impact and slam. This fight could not last long. Eri began to struggle with her captor, she still had the EQ pen on hand, and knew that Chronstasis had used it, on someone earlier, maybe she could use it too?

Shouto stuggled to keep the barrier up, the wind pressure was just so damn strong, while everyone else from the corners of the USJ watched, some in silence or shock. Others with dark and fearful thoughts.

* * *

Ochako had finally calmed down enough to stop fighting, but was already planning to make her own move, she needed to save Eri and Izuku.

"Is Midoriya...Draco Knight's kid?" She heard Yosetsu gulp, while Yui had began trembling with fear, at the sight of the two fighting battling, while they all collective tried to avoid the violent and powerful wind pressure that continued to pound on them.

Denki simply looked on; his face almost blank. While Momo and Kyouka looked at each other and then to Ochako, while simply looked on. Her theory had been confirmed...Only now everyone knew and now she feared on how Izuku would be looked at from here.

"WE GOT TO HELP HIM!" Ochako called out to her teammates trying to both rally them and trying to keep them from dwelling on Izuku's secret.

"How the hell do we do that?" Denki suddenly asked, "this is clearly All Might levels of a villain. The small fry we can handle but between Eri and Midoriya just how to do we help out?"

Momo began to think while she viewed the battle seeing that while Izuku was holding his own, he didn't seem to be making a real dent on the damned monster. And after taking a quick peek through her binoculars, she confirmed her suspicions.

"It seems like our foe can regenerate...we need to stop that in order to give Midoriya the edge...something like a...massive shock." She finished up looking at Denki.

Denki looked at Momo before looking down at Overhaul and after placing the pieces to together he answered. "I can shock anything, but two things worry me, one I can't aim my attack so, I either need something connecting me to the giant guy and two, I don't want to accidentally hurt Eri with my attack, we need to cut her loose before I can hit him full blast!"

Ochako paused for a moment when she heard Denki say they needed to ,_ 'Cut her loose.'_ A crazy idea forming in her head as she looked at Kyouka's abandoned Machete...and Yui Kodai.

While Momo looked at the nervous looking Yui as well, making her very uncomfortable as the two ladies began walking up to her both with rather unique requests.

* * *

Katsuki was being forced back by Camie and Hanta he tried desperately to help his best friend. All the while hearing the some of the commentary from others. Commentary he had long since feared hearing.

"Is that Draco Knight?!"

"No...it's Midoriya..."

"But that's Draco Knight's quirk isn't it?!"

"Isn't that really dangerous?! What the hell is the point of the Volatile Quirk Act if doesn't even stop the son of the law's poster boy!"

Katsuki could see the fear in the faces of some from both classes, other looked like they were simply observing others however seemed to be waiting their chance to strike back regardless of what was going on.

Eraserhead was still conscious barely considering his injuries, had some of his students prop him up. Ready to use quirk on either Izuku or Overhaul possibly both if needed to get the situation under control. As soon as he could get a clear line of sight.

* * *

Nejire had forced the group she had been leading into at the base of the Mountain Zone into cover. She and the rest of the third years had been informed by Eraserhead about the truth of Izuku's quirk since just before the battle trial. As their Department Head knew they had were all mature enough to handle the information given and would not judge the kid because of his father's actions, however she couldn't help but worry about Izuku's immediate future as she could see the paling faces of her charges.

Shino who had awoken a moments ago when the first shock wave hit; he looked at Izuku with his own mix of anger and fear.

* * *

Mashiraou and Tooru could only watch the battle unfold while desperately trying to take care of all their classmates with Fumikage and Tsuyu. As Ryu and Kinoko were both still unconscious from earlier.

* * *

Eri contiuned to try and stab Overhaul with the EQ pen, not knowing that she needed to remove the cap that covered the syringe, seeing her surrogate father fight like he had promised, made her want to fight back. To free herself from his grasp once and for all.

* * *

What no one had noticed during the clash of the Demon and the Dragon was the smallest hero-in-training running down right under Overhaul's giant feet as Minoru Mineta despite all his fears and knowing one wrong step would get him crushed began planting down as many sticky balls as he could, while on his waist was one of Ibarra's vines wrapped around him ready to pull him out of the death trap he can placed himself in. He had managed to convince her of his plans on the condition that she would would be the one to pull him out to safety.

Overhaul needed to be slowed down, for everyone's safety, but Shouto was still busy using his ice to create the barriers, protecting them from the wind pressure. Seeing Izuku fight on against the odds, despite the night that haunted him six years ago, was enough for Minoru to try and fight as best he could as well. Slowly, but surely Overhaul's movements were being slowing down with every step until he found himself completely stuck to the damaged floor the foot claws covered with hundreds of sticky purple balls.

It bpught Izuku valuable time to try and free Eri from Overhaul's grasp.

* * *

Overhaul began to feel something new as Izuku continued his vicious unyielding assault against him as for the split second he could see the boy's face. He had stopped seeing the golden eyes; he had at he beginning of their fight. Now they had become a blood red; worthy for a Devil. It only took one look of those blood red eyes to remind him of an emotion he had once forgotten.

_**FEAR**_.

An emotion he hadn't felt since being taken by his former boss, Eri's grandfather and the man who had raised him from the gutters. The man who had betrayed him, when he turned rat to the government six years ago.

"BEGONE YOU PEST!" Overhaul roared swinging violently managing to strike down Izuku to the ground. Eri screamed seeing Izuku getting hit only to stop when she saw the boy get up just as fast despite the damage he had just received. Despite his clawed hands becoming bloody and raw, Izuku still fought on.

Overhaul braced for Izuku's encoming hit, unable to moved due to his footclaws being stuck to floor. What he didn't expect was another voice coming up from behind him.

"SHIFT! RELEASE!"

Overhaul turned only to see a brunette with what appeared to be a giant machete coming down on him, or more specifically the claw that held Eri. With a single sweeping cut taking advantage of the extra weight the blade now carried. Ochako sliced off the giant limb, before letting it go to reach for Eri who had gone flying, when the claw released her.

As Eri flew in the air in complete surprise; her heart soared as she saw Ochako's determined face; her arms reaching out for her.

"I've got you." Ochako said, as Eri began feeling so warm when she felt Ochako's arms wrap around her and began descending slowly thanks to Ochako's quirk.

Overhaul completely livid of being cheated of his long awaited prize, reached out for the two that was still descending to the ground, aiming to swipe at the two out of air, before he was suddenly struck as large volley of large metal cannon balls began, battering Overhaul's large frame along with a giant harpoon landing dead center of his monsterous frame.

Momo and her team had made Mini Cannons that been made bigger thanks to Yui's quirk in an effort to conserve her body fat, add a makeshift chain and harpoon courtesy of Yosetsu's welding quirk and they had created the link needed for Denki to do his job. Denki grabbed the chain; secured to the ground thanks again to Yosetsu quirk, before discharging his quirk a max output, sending a massive shock wave to Overhaul's body stunning him.

"CHARGE UP! 1.4 Million volts!" Denki yelled out as used his quirk.

When the electircal charged ended, Izuku began running up Overhaul's twiching limbs to deliver the Coup de Grȃce. With one last jump Izuku placed the last of his strength into one last strike.

_**ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!**_

He bellowed out as his fists came together and slammed down on Overhaul's head, sending the two crashing down to the ground with a massive.

_**CRASH!**_

Sending dust and air pressure everywhere across the USJ, making Ochako land harshly with Eri still in her arms.

"Shift." She managed to gasp out after a painful landing; using her quirk to weight her and Eri down to avoid getting blown away from the air pressure.

Overhaul's mind went blank, ears ringing with pain as he was forced to release the captives of his quirk as he landed violently on the ground as the material used to create his transformation split up leaving several dazed and confused villains and leaving a stunned Tomura to in turn make his escape.

He had lost the battle, but there was still time to win the war; deciding to cut his losses short.

As the dust began to settled and the villains began to slowly began coming to Izuku gave out an inhuman roar as he spotted a terrified Overhaul trying to drag himself to where Tomura was before being left behind.

Izuku slowly began walking, almost circling the defeated man; like a lion stalking its prey.

* * *

"IZUKU STOP!" Katsuki yelled out.

"MIDORIYA IT'S OVER!"

"Midnight, get me up. If Midoriya's really has gone berserk, then we need to stop him." Eraserhead managed to whisper to the R-rated hero, who had taken over carrying her boss. A whisper that a few others managed to hear.

* * *

All of Izuku's senses however continued to focus on one thing. The man infront of him.

Izuku could only feel the wrath, of wanting vengeance for the little girl. The man who had been the source of her nightmares, the scars, her tears. Here he was broken, trying to flee like the coward he was, now here he was completely at his mercy, it would be so easy to end him. It would be the only way to make sure that he could never hurt Eri ever again.

_**'Yes...end him.'**_

Overhaul stopped moving when he saw that he had been abandoned by Tomura. Cursing the man and vowing revenge he turned to face Izuku, only to be met with that mask of malice with those cursed blood red eyes that made his heart pound with fear. As Izuku began to come down on him, with murder clear in his eyes.

"Eri!" They all heard Ochako yell out. Making Izuku stop as he heard that name go through his head.

**_Eri._**

Izuku suddenly stopped moving his face becoming blank, yet his eyes were still red as Eri grew closer. Izuku turned his head to see her running at him with a determine yet teary face. After a few more seconds Izuku turned around and began to reach for Eri.

Time then seemed to hold still, before it all happened.

There was a flash, a scream and blood went everywhere.

* * *

**Authors Commentary**

Phew...that was...something! Haha! Please don't kill me! I swear it isn't what it looks like, but what exactly happened? Well the answer to that will be in the next chapter.

_**Aftermath II**_

Personally I'm just glad I'm done as this was pretty stressful chapter to write. Thankfully the next few chapters are easier for me are a lot shorter. We're almost at the end of Arc II, we just have a handful more chapters to go.

*3 Alphabets. Japanese doesn't really have an "Alphabet" like we are used to with most western languages. But the Japanese to use about 4 different systems in their language.

Kanji is based on Chinese Influence and share a number of characters, some similar or completely different means.

Hiragana which traditional Japanese used alongside Kanji.

Katakana which is used for borrowed words and foreign names.

And a fourth is technical guide to help guide Latin-influenced languages known as Romanji which is basically the roman alphabets that we know, use and love today.

Until next time my dear readers and as always with a lots of love.

_**-X**_


	24. Aftermath II

PHEW! Sorry for the wait, I know must have sucked royally hard to have to wait this long, but I wanted to try and really do my best with this one, as I had to redo it a couple times, until I got it right.

Also _**Draco Knight Chapter III**_ will also be up soon! And it is going to one hell of a revelation if you pay careful attention.

Also a extra special thanks for some of the fight feedback from the last chapter, I did go back and made some changes and edits that I think should improve the fight overall. However if you don't want too that is fine as the ending remained unchanged.

I'll be updating this chapter again, with review responses tomorrow.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc II: The Incident **_

_**Chapter XXIV: Aftermath II**_

* * *

**_"True friends are those who came into your life, saw the most negative part of you, but are not ready to leave you, no matter how contagious you are to them."  
_**

**_― Michael Bassey Johnson, The Infinity Sign_**

* * *

_Izuku sat in the darkness sitting by what seemed to be a small campfire. It was a cold, dark and lonely place, surrounded by whispers and shadows that danced to the tune of the flames. He was tired, and aching in pain. _

"_Too strong...much too strong." Spoke one raspy low voice. _

"_Bind the Demon," Said another voice this one cold. _

"_But let the Dragon be free," Spoke a softer gentler voice. _

"_No way the little guy could hold this all power now, with this thing within him." Spoke another with a strange funky rhythm. _

_The flames began to part splitting down the middle revealing eight figures covered in shadow on a small hill all of them with glowing yellow eyes. At the base of the hill was an emerald colored dragon with blood red eyes bound by what seemed to be a rainbow of chains. _

"_His strength is enough. It has to be enough." _

_**ROAR**_

_Izuku felt a chill run down his spine, and managed to move, only to find himself covered in darkness, that covered his mouth making him unable to speak, but was still able to look behind him. When he turned he saw that there was a mountain of skulls each with yellow or red eyes with four figures dotting it from top to bottom._

_The one at the top stood as the source of the darkness with one ruby right eye and one golden left eye. _

_Just under him stood another with angry blood red eyes. _

_Under him was another in clad in jet black armor with somber golden eyes under his helm. _

_And finally the shortest shadow seemed to be curled up a throne of bones at the base of the mountain, her golden cat-like eyes staring with curiosity. _

_A dark laughter began to fill the air. Stirring the three to move down slowly. _

_ **ROAR**_

"_He is the last of us, One for All would be too strong from here on in." The raspy voice spoke again. _

"_Our powers will keep the beast at bay, but at a cost." The cold voice spoke again._

"_But we will continue to let the Dragon roam free, releasing the beast only when needed." The gentle voice spoke again. _

"_You got that little man? We will keep the bad part of you at bay, but you cannot get our powers now." The funky voice spoke again. _

_Izuku seemed so confused by everything, where was he? Who was everyone? Just what was going on? What other powers? _

"_In time he will understand." Spoke a raw and somber voice, a familiar voice. _

"_For now my boy. It is time for you to go. We will be seeing you again soon." The soft voice spoke on last time. _

_Izuku wanted to stop them and ask what was going on, but the shadow that covered his mouth continued to prevent him from speaking. When he tried moving closer to them instead, the floor beneath him suddenly gave way and he fell into the depths. _

_He wanted to scream as he fell; trying desperately to grab at anything to stop himself, yet he failed and continued to fall. _

* * *

"I think he's coming too."

Izuku jerked awake with a shout, sweating and breathing hard, he didn't even have a moment to realize where he was when he suddenly felt a set of arms wrap tightly around him.

"IZUKU!" Inko cried embracing her son crying hard into his shoulder.

"Mom?" Izuku managed to say as he struggled to breathe from the bone crushing hug, his vision was slowly coming together as he managed to gain his barrings.

"I was so worried about all of you when I saw the news!" Inko sobbed, resisting Izuku's efforts to try and break free from her grasp.

"Inko honey let Izu breathe for a moment, I think he still might be lost at the moment." Mitsuki said drawing up the curtains of Izuku's hospital room bed.

Inko squeaked for a moment when she realized that Mitsuki was correct and slowly released Izuku, letting the poor guy get some air in and allowing him to settle having just woken up. Izuku's mind was foggy unable to recall what happened earlier.

"Where am I mom?" Izuku asked as the last thing he could recall was arriving at the USJ with his class, as he looked around however he was able to piece together some idea of what might have happened.

"Where is everyone, did something happen?" Izuku asked now fully realizing that he was indeed in the hospital, did something happen during training?

"You don't remember Izuku?" Inko asked voice refilling with concern.

"The last thing I remember was going to the USJ for training...I think?" Izuku answered unsure of himself.

"Villains attacked you guys at the site Izu," Mitsuki answered quietly, flinching when she saw Izuku's face become pale at her words. Immediately Izuku began shooting questions at a mile a minute.

"Villains?! How?! Is everyone okay? Where's Eri?! Ochako and-?"

"Izu one at a time!" Mitsuki snapped, making Izuku go silent.

"I'm sorry."

"No I'm sorry Izu, but we kind of need a moment to give you the answers you want," Mitsuki answered slightly bashful after speaking to Izuku like that in front of Inko who still seemed more focused on her son's well being.

"To answer your questions in order Izu. They're not sure yet as the police and staff still investigating, everyone's from UA is alive, but some your classmates are here in the hospital too. Eri's also here, but she's unharmed and sleeping in her room right now with Ryuko watching over her, and as for Pink Cheeks she's either still at UA or at her place." Mitsuki began answering before Inko stepped in.

"There's something else Izuku...everyone knows now, about our connection with your father."

Izuku's eyes widened, his grip tightened on his sheets. He must have overused his quirk, that would also explain is foggy memory again, but in doing so their secret was out now, fear was already beginning to settle in, he knew that Katsuki would back him, but what about everyone else at UA?

What was their reaction? What was Ochako's reaction? His first real friend in so many years after Katsuki, would she be mad for keeping his secret from her? Would she be scared of him now? Would he need to drop out from UA? What about Eri? Would she need to leave them?

Izuku didn't notice that while he was lost in his thoughts; that tears had began running down his face.

* * *

Dabi sat on his futon with a small laptop on his legs writing a quick update for the suits that had gotten him stuck here. It had been a strange few weeks for the aloof man. He had moved into a nicer apartment thanks to the..._generous funds_ that the league provided him for the job and...his current assignment that was proving to be a mystery on her own.

_'Now how the fuck to do I write this without repeating myself? Can't bullshit my way out of these essays.'_ He thought to himself with a dark chuckle to himself. Progress reports were a pain when you have nothing to update from the last one, his current task for the league...Babysitting.

Dabi was still trying his best to expand on the report, when he heard a gentle rapping of his bedroom door, Dabi without batting an eye, swiftly closed the laptop and hid it under his futon. He rose up stretching his limbs and breathed a casual yawn, acting as if he had just woken up from a nap.

"I'm coming hold on a moment," He answered as he drew closer to the door, opening to find his guest, holding up a notepad right up to his face.

"_Dabi, I'm hungry." _It said, as the blonde with innocent looking golden cat-like eyes holding it, held a small pout on her face. Dabi looked at his charge with a small chuckle.

"Alright Toga, just give me a second and we'll go out again, let just put something a little more decent. Last thing I want is people looking at me funny with all this scars." He motioned the scars on his arms and face, as he wore a simple white short sleeve shirt and pants.

Himiko tilted her head looking a bit puzzled before giving him a simple nod and made her treating back into the living room.

Himiko Toga had been one of hell of a mystery for Dabi, when they had first met Dabi seriously thought the girl may have been mentally challenged when he was first saddled with her. However despite not being able to communicate due to the fact that her vocal cords seemed to have been severed if the long scar across her neck was any indication. She had proved clever when they have played games to entertain themselves.

His task from the league where simple, keep her happy, fed and away from people as much as humanly possible, for their own safety not hers. Ironic given that villains seemed so concerned with the public welling being of people, still Himiko seemed stable enough to be in public without freaking out.

The only time he had learned to keep his guard up, was when the warp villain would appear to take her away from him for a couple of hours. Only for the two to return with her ending up looking very sickly, pale and far more violent for the first few hours, afterward she would go back to becoming more docile and passive.

As Dabi was finishing up getting dressed, he had to remind himself to get her check out by a doctor, but someone in underground who wouldn't ask questions and would answer any of his questions about her. He didn't want to invade her privacy, but the suits who held his leash wouldn't give a fuck. They wanted answers and they would get them one way or another.

"Maybe I can arrange something with them, just got to make her that I got her free and that I won't get an unexpected visit from her dear uncle." He quietly said to himself.

Once Dabi was dressed and ready, he walked out his bedroom to join Himiko sitting on the tiny couch the apartment came with, the one that Himiko had taken over with gusto, preferring it to her own bed that Dabi had bought for her. Dabi didn't use the damn thing so he didn't mind when she had taken it for herself, while adding several stuffed animals to it.

"_The Incident and the revelation behind it, has put into question the very point of the volatile quirk laws..." _He heard a voice from the TV say, but Dabi was never one for politics...and as he thought about it now...neither was Himiko.

"Ready to go?" He asked the young blonde who was now sitting up with a look of concern on her face as she looked at the T.V.

"What's wrong?" Dabi asked before looking at the T.V. himself. It was the local news with the bright headline flashing on the screen, with a news anchor currently speaking with a local political talking head.

"_Several members of the New Conventionalist movement, better known as the Neocon movement have declined interview for the time being as an emergency meeting as apparently been called, to address this apparent failure of the law they have placed so much faith on." _

_**BREAKING NEWS **_

_**Attack on UA! The Heir of Disaster found?! **_

Dabi looked at the screen and took a moment to process what he was seeing on the screen.

"Ah...shit."

* * *

"Ah, shit."

Katsuki said to himself silently, or as silently as he could with the amount of blistering anger that was brewing under him as the moment, as he read the news on his phone. His hands had been bound stiffly by the medics, as Recovery Girl had to be dispatched to the hospital for the ones who had gotten the worst of it.

Almost all of the first years who hadn't been sent to the hospital, being treated at the nurses office, or taking statements with the police, were currently waiting in one of the large multi-purpose rooms waiting for their next set of instructions. Despite how many there were, the room was actually very quiet, with most of the sound that was being made, was either silent sobs, quiet eating or a whispered one-lined conversations, it seemed like very little wanted to be said with the lack of an update.

They were all spread out on soft mats, with some food carts on the opposite end of the entrance way. This room was originally supposed to service as their break room when their training was done, now it felt like a prison.

_'Goddamnit,'_ Katsuki thought to himself as he read the headline. _'Someone let the news know, Izuku's been found out.'_

Katsuki wanted to rage to find out who ratted out his best friend's identity as there was no way the teachers would have done such a thing. His first instinct was to blame Ryu, then he remembered that Ryu was one of the ones who had been transported to the hospital, having been unconscious during the final battle, but there was still the chance he could have done it, if he had awakened in the hospital and had his phone on him.

Then there was Ochako, fucking hell that girl had proven to be something else in that fight, but he hadn't seen her, since she beat the ever loving shit out of the Yakuza fuck-wit who tired taking Eri when Izuku collapsed. Yet he remembered the fear on her face,when it was all over. She was also one of the few who hadn't returned from giving the police a statement. Now that she knew the truth, there was still a chance that she could have been the one who ratted Izuku out, especially if the apartment gets raided, because as far as he knew she was the only one at UA who knew where Izuku lived besides himself.

However he also knew that there could easily be others, he could feel eyes on him from time to time, after all it was no secret that Katsuki and Izuku are best friends and that Katsuki must have known the truth. As he continued reading the article for clues for the rat, his phone began to buzz, as a text message from Yuu popped up.

* * *

**Mt. Bitch (Yuu):** Katsu, Inko and your mom are at the hospital to check-up on Izuku and Eri. I'll be picking you up and we'll be doing Plan C.

* * *

Now that they knew that someone had leaked Izuku's name they had to follow one of the plans. Plan C was one of those said emergency plans the two families had made in case of such a scenario. His dad would remain at home, while he and Yuu would holding down the Midoriya household, until they got the all clear. Katsuki shuddered as he remembered the first apartment Izuku had, it had been broken into and had almost been destroyed if it wasn't for Ryuko who had happened to been patrolling nearby at the time. The man who had done it, was guy who had lost one of his siblings during the Draco Knight incident and wanted revenge.

Katsuki was about to type up his response, when the room door opened up, revealing Tenya, Shouto back in their normal uniforms and one of The Big Five; Mezou Shouji entering who was still wearing his hero costume. Everyone's attention had turned to focus on Mezou, who made his way to the empty podium.

"I have an update for all of you, once I am done with the update, I can answer some questions for you, but keep in mind that I may not be able to answer some questions that I know will come up for privacy reasons." The tall boy began saying, starting the update.

"First: School has been suspended until the start of next week. Second: Mr. Hound dog and some of his assistants will be providing counseling for everyone, UA will also provide additional mental health support if needed, but the first round of counseling will be mandatory for everyone including myself and the rest of the Big Five." Mezou said to try and ease some of the concerns of the students who started making certain facial reactions when hearing the word _counseling_.

"Third: For safety, you will be released from school,when your parent and or guardian comes to pick you up. In the case that yours is not available to retrieve you, then the police will be providing an escort for you and recommends that you stay in your homes until at least until tomorrow that is all."

Silence was the answer for a few moments, until hands began to be raised, Shouji began mentally taking count of the hands raised and began answering each, the best he could.

"Yes, Kirishima?"

"What's the status of everyone in the hospital?" Eijirou asked shakily, as Mina held his hand as both of them had red puffy eyes from their time crying when the cavalry had arrived to start their rescue.

Mezou hummed, and saw some hands go down when Eijirou asked, he had updates, but it better not to go into too much detail.

"Everyone is alive, all of the teachers are expected to make full recoveries, however Mr. Vlad may be absent for while he gets fitted with a prosthetic arm. Kendou, Asui, Komori, and Amajiki are all recovering and are in stable condition." He answered avoiding mentioning Izuku.

"What about Kasei?" Tooru's voice piped up, as she just returned wearing her school uniform.

"And Springfield?!" Mina interjected her own concerns.

At the mention of Alex, Mezou looked down for moment, as the foreigner had been both his teammate and friend so it was difficult to answer. He had overheard the teachers talking about what happened to Alex, before he had been given his task. He didn't mean to eavesdropped on the conversation, but after seeing how downcast the staff had been he didn't blame them.

Mezou paused for a moment, they would learn the truth sooner or later, finally with a painful frown hidden under his facemask, he answered. "From what I know, both are still in surgery and are still in critical condition."

What he didn't say was that both students had a very low expected survival rate.

The room went completely silent, they had all made out alive so far, but would that luck hold? Everyone who had been in the Downpour and Conflagration Zones kept their own silent prayers and best wishes to the two still fighting for their lives.

The general mood of the room that had already been down, only got worse. And it was only going to get worse with the next question.

Mezou called on the next person.

"Mizuoji."

Shino stood up, his face darkened.

"I think we need to address the giant elephant in the room."

Mezou internally flinched, but outwardly kept calm, knowing the next few moments could become extremely volatile.

"Midoriya is Draco Knight's kid...isn't he?" If the room had been silent before, now the sound level had reached the point of complete stillness, as it seemed like everyone had inhaled and held their collective breath. "Don't even lie, the news is already all over it."

Katsuki was about to rise up and start yelling at Shino, when someone else rose to the occasion.

"And what if Midoriya is Draco Knight's son? I do not see an issue with it." Tenya shot back with a cold look on his face.

"You're kidding? You weren't there! You didn't see what...that monster could do!" Shino shouted out, face now clearly angry. "I lost my brother when his dad went nuts six years ago! You expect me to just forget that? To just work with the guy when he could clearly go the same way one day?!"

What he didn't know was that there were others in the class who had lost family in the incident as well.

"First, I am sorry about your loss, and yes; you are correct. I was not at the USJ for the battle as I was getting help as ordered. However Shouto here, let me know what happened and from what I gathered on my own. The only reason any of you weren't harmed by the real monster that was there, was because of _my class representative._ Izuku Midoriya had taken up the fight when no one could." Tenya answered coolly, refusing to back down from what he viewed as slander against his friend and classmate. "I can not speak for Midoriya, but I can say that the sins of the father are not the sins of the son. I do not know who else, may have lost family during that incident six years ago, but regardless of what happened, Midoriya himself is not to blame! You surely can see reason in that!"

"Did you know about Midoriya's berserker status, nerd? I heard Eraserhead mention it to Midnight during the fight!" Togaru spoke up equally angry, but for a slightly different reason. "There is a special place for people with that type of defect, they get listed as _Probationary Students, so _why the fuck is that me and three others are listed for our quirks, when HE LITERALLY LOST CONTROL AND LOOKED LIKE HE WANTED TO KILL THE GUY WHEN HE WAS DOWN!"

Everyone looked around, as Katsuki and Fumikage froze at the moment of they heard the words _Probationary Students_. As this was not common knowledge and neither still wanted their status as probationary students revealed.

"Mizuoji, Kamakiri! Please my friends that's enough!" Jurota exclaimed trying to calm down his classmates.

"YOU! YOU SHOULD PISSED AS WELL SHISHIDA! YOU'RE ONE US! HOW COULD YOU DEFEND THIS?" Togaru continued rounding on his classmate, who looked shocked and ashamed that he had just been outed to the rest of his classmates.

"How dare you call out your fellow classmate like that! That was completely uncalled for! What you say about yourself is your business, but do not drag down others with you! And while I now suspect that some of the others you mentioned may be in Class A. I warn you now, you will not call them out, or we will be settling this outside." Tenya proclaimed, surprising everyone else in the room that he would actually threaten someone.

For Tenya, he saw Togaru's outburst as a betrayal and their where few things that he could never tolerate. Betrayal was among the top of that short list. Shouto looked at surprised as well, though he knew that Tenya had his limits.

"We all just made it out a critical situation alive, with two of us currently still fighting desperately for their lives, and instead of worrying about them. You focus on trying to blame a past event on someone else who had nothing to do with it, have you no respect?!" Tenya continued staring down both Shino and Togaru.

"I lost my mom during the Draco Knight incident six years ago...and I don't blame Midoriya." A quiet voice spoke up, the room collectively looked at the source of the voice.

Minoru Mineta with his head completely bandaged up, with none of his hair orbs even being able to manifest due to having used so many during the Overhaul fight. He looked like he was trying to hold back tears. "He's been a good guys to us and like Iida said earlier, he saved us!" Minoru piped up, making Shino back down while still looking angry.

Mezou seeing the chance to defuse the situation spoke up.

"That's enough. To answer the original question, yes Midoriya is Draco Knight's son. And for the record, Kamagiri, everyone in the Big Five knew the truth, including of Midoriya's then possibly secondary feature. We had solutions if the situation ever came to it, and finally the reason Midoriya wasn't on the list, was simple. Because up to this point, Midoriya displayed no indication that the feature could had even been past down to him, until now. While in your case, had a solid record of lashing out and one case of assault that was dropped."

Mezou normally would have never revealed such a thing, but it was a small consolation for Jurota's exposure as Togaru was now forced to sit himself down. However he wasn't finished with Tenya, he knew that he had meant well, but he could not nor would not show favoritism.

"And Iida, never threaten anyone like that in front of me again. I will let it slide today as we are all stressed and emotional, but I will not tolerate it further understand? Do it again and I will be forced to report you."

Tenya quickly stood to attention before answering. "Yes, sir. Please forgive my rudeness."

"I would ask you all to drop the subject from conversation, but that would be pointless." Mezou continued feeling exhausted, wondering if this is how Eraserhead felt when teaching. "However, Iida was correct in a few things, to blame Midoriya for something he had no control over in the past is unfair and if you all wish to become heroes, when it comes to your future cooperation. You never know when someone will arrive to back you up, and it is better to be at least at amiable terms rather than hostile ones."

The room went silent once again. Katsuki was somewhere between pleased and ashamed that he couldn't get a word in, he knew that acting out now, could possibility only make the situation worse, not just for himself but for Izuku. Still he had to admit that his respect for Tenya grew today. He looked around and saw a mixed reaction around the classroom, it looks like some people were still making up their minds on Izuku and only time would tell.

* * *

Kyouka entered the spare recovery room to check up on Denki, since Momo had gone back to check up on everyone else. It had been one hell of the day for everyone, she saw the blond sitting on one of the cots staring at his phone with the strangest expression on his face. To her it seemed like somewhere between sadness and anger, then again she knew that he had been one of the ones who had been actively hunted by the villains.

Hell one of his friends was currently in the hospital still in the red, she couldn't really blame him if he was mad about it.

"You okay Kaminari?" She asked, making Denki look up at her standing there with a water bottle for him.

His expression instantly warmed a bit; but Denki didn't answer her right away as if he was looking for the right words to say, after a moment or two he finally answered with,

"I donno to be honest," he sighed, bring up the lock screen on the phone and looking at the picture displayed, before taking the bottle from her with a small thanks. "Where's Yaoyorozu?"

"She had to go check-up on everyone back in the multi-purpose room, while I'm just waiting for my dad to pick me up...You waiting for your folks to pick you up too?" Kyouka asked taking a seat across from him, while he took a quick drink from the bottle.

"Nah, I already know that I'm gonna have to get an escort home. I've just wondering...why were we being hunted?" Denki said putting down the bottle while still looking at the screen. "I know they were bad guys, but they were really gunning for some of us ya know? Now one of my friends is in the hospital, everyone's been shaken up, angry and then there is Midoriya...I mean damn ya know?"

Kyouka give him a stiff nod, she didn't know the best way to answer the guy. She had accidentally learned from the statements she overheard that everyone who had been hunted was targeted because they had yellow eyes. She knew it must have sucked for him, since she wasn't one for the limelight and especially not that kind of limelight.

It didn't help that Kyouka didn't know the trio of Denki, Ryu and Minoru all that well yet. As they each seemed like immature perverts from their earlier conversations at lunch, goof-offs that seemed try to get in easy and coast through their classwork. Yet each one had stepped-up during the USJ incident and proved to all that they had been here to become heroes despite their more casual easy going demeanor.

While she still tried to find the words to answer him, she heard a buzzing sound coming from Denki's pocket and saw him pulled out another phone, which threw her off on why he had a second phone. She saw him type up a text message before looking back at her.

"Looks like my uncle is coming to pick me up instead." Denki said with a small laugh, only to spot the questioning look on Kyouka's face. "What's up?"

"Why do you have two phones?" She asked still puzzled, Denki paused for a moment is mouth slightly open, before closing and answered instead by showing her the display of the lock screen of the first phone.

"This one isn't mine." Denki answered, "It's Kasei's. I was planning to go see him at the hospital and hopefully give it back to him, but I guess the picture threw me off, I didn't mean to see it, but Kasei never mentioned that he had siblings nor have I ever seen him smile like that."

Kyouka looked at the picture.

It was of Ryu seated with three other kids; all of them clearly younger than him. One boy with reddish brown hair and eyes, and two girls, one with lavender hair and violet eyes, and the youngest a sickly looking redhead with bright green eyes. All of them of had seemed to have gathered in a large group hug, looking at the camera with a large bright smiles on their faces, with Ryu's face having the biggest and dumbest smile ever plastered on his face.

Her heart sank as she saw the picture,Ryu's family was mostly likely worried sick about him, assuming that UA had already contacted them. At the very least she might have found the right words to say to a guy like Denki in time like this.

"I think Kasei will pull through, something tells me you guys are too stubborn to die like that." Kyouka said trying her hand at humor, it wasn't her strong suit, but something told her that Denki was the type to appreciate the effort at least and she was proved right when Denki gave her a small chuckle.

"Yeah, that sounds about right, Kasei doesn't seem like the type to go down not without fight. We have our reps to think about ya know?"

Kyouka rolled her eyes but had a small smirk on her face as well. "Whatever you say Wheyman."

* * *

Kai wasn't sure how to react to the situation he was facing at the moment as he calmly sat in his seat. He had been called to the emergency meeting that the Neocons were having. Hideyoshi was completely livid,which Kai had to admit was one of the most amusing things he had ever had the pleasure of witnessing. For the man was throwing one of the biggest temper tantrums like a small child.

"Damn that brat! How did he get past the policy without at least being on probation?!" The man ranted to the senior party members, several who were now scrambling to look up, wording, loopholes, anything to try and find out how Izuku Midoriya had slipped through the cracks of the one of the biggest pieces of legislation that the Neocons had ever signed off on. The biggest irony was the law's poster boy; his father.

"The damned media has managed to turn the tables on us!" Hideyoshi continued throwing papers and books in the air, Kai even had to cock his head to the right to dodge an incoming book that flew past him and struck a junior member who had been standing behind him.

"Sir we've already done a solid check! Everything was by the book!" One of the members exclaimed.

"HORSESHIT! AND YOU!" Hideyoshi roared now pointing a finger at Kai, who simply looked at the man with a bored expression on his face, keeping his barring so as not to just breaking out in laughter at the man.

"Why didn't you mention this before!? You were at the exams!"

Kai took a quick look at his watch, his wife Saya should already be at Ryu's bedside watching over him. He wanted to make this quick, so he simply gave the man a simple shrug of his shoulders.

"Simple, it didn't seem important to mention."

Hideyoshi seemed completely floored by the response.

"What in the hell does that mean Doumeki!?"

"Simple, I thought the same as you. That the law you have so much pride and took stock in, would take care of it, and yet now it seems like I was wrong, a mistake I am more that willing to admit." Kai said ever so casually with the smallest dash of snark in his voice. The room went quiet, all of the party leaders now looking at the two, some with anger at Kai's audacity, others nervous on how their leader would react.

Hideyoshi wasn't amused, he stood up straight and began fixing up his jacket, the man turn to look at everyone else in the room and barked out his order.

"Out, _now. _And find a way out of this goddamn mess on the double!"

Everyone except Kai, began to stand and rapidly made for the exit, some giving quick bows of respect that were simply waved off by the elder statesman. Once they were alone, Hideyoshi sat back down stewing in his thoughts before trying to approach the man in a different way.

"What's the status of my investment?"

Kai blinked for a moment, until he realized what he meant. Ryu was simply an asset to him, nothing more, nothing less.

"Ryu is out of surgery, but still unconscious, the doctors are giving him about a 30% chance right about now." Kai began with a frown, it was true that he didn't actively like the boy, but he wouldn't dehumanize him either...especially not after hearing some of the statements gathered from the students he helped save.

Hideyoshi leaned back, "Well if he dies, that could be one way we could to spin this back in our favor."

Kai felt his fists clench, just how far was the man willing to go? "Or it could bite the movement in the ass, if the media starts digging into his past should he die...Need I remind you about former Representative Saito?"

"The kid is a bastard nothing more, besides the surname he gave himself should provide enough of a cover," Hideyoshi said dismissively. Kai was about to retort when he stopped himself, something about what Hideyoshi just said gave him pause.

Hideyoshi however continued, "Beside his death wouldn't be the worst thing, aside from the spin, his life insurance would kick in. The funds will go back to the orphanage he came from, but nothing is stopping us from securing the funds ourselves and donating them on behalf of the movement."

And that was enough for Kai, he was fine dirtying his own hands with his own actions, but he still had his own limits, it was jarring enough when he had to witness Ryu sign his life up like that when the adoption was done almost a year ago.

"Is there anything else sir?" Kai said trying to keep his composure, Hideyoshi frowned clearly displeased with the reaction he was receiving.

"Only this Doumeki. I know we haven't been seeing eye to eye as of late, but I also have to remind you that you are with us all the way, ever since you sold out Draco Knight to us. We burn you burn, so stop trying to place yourself on the high ground here. I know that forcing the adoption on you didn't help, I get it, but remember, this is all for the sake of building a more fair and even Japan, especially if we ever want to fix the problem that all of with these damned clowns who call themselves Pro-Heroes cause."

_'Once upon time, I actually used to believed that.'_ Kai thought as he rose up from his seat. "If that is all then sir and if you do not mind, I'll be taking my leave to meet with my wife at the hospital."

Hideyoshi looked at the man before he gave a wheezing laugh, "Then give my regards to Saya, Kai."

Kai stopped for a moment...he could have punched the man at that moment for way he addressed the two of them right now, but knew he was trying to simply egg him on. Instead after a quick deep breath he simply kept walking out of the office. It was time to see his ward.

_'Sometimes...I wish I had never gotten involved with this...damn you boy...goddamn it Hisashi...'_

* * *

"I'm fine ma. I got to kick some serious villain butt." Ochako said over the phone holding it awkwardly due to her bandaged hands.. "I'm actually plann' on visiting him soon. Tomorrow I think."

She had been sent back to her apartment, after giving her statement to the police. Not being given a chance to say bye to anyone, only a chance to get changed and get her things. She desperately wanted to know how everyone was doing...especially Izuku and Eri.

"I swear ma, it could have been much worse...yeah it's like daddy said, don't believe what the media is saying. He saved us no question." Ochako paused before throwing a bit of humor for her mother. "But he had a lil' help from me and a few others. I had a big ol' sword ma!"

"Yeah ma...I know...I love you too, we'll talk again soon, bye ma." Ochako hung up with a sigh, as she slumped on her bed, the whole incident seemed to had gone on so long, while the aftermath was going by so fast, it was almost giving her whiplash.

She looked at her phone again...she wanted to call Izuku or Inko...but was it the right time to call them? Especially with the media being how it is right now? Should she give them space? Or do they need her support now more than ever? She didn't have the answer it was kind of driving her crazy because of it.

Her thoughts returning to that movement when the battle had been all but won, when the nightmare ended.

_Ochako held on to Eri tightly as the final shock wave was dying and Overhaul had returned to normal. Ochako was feeling extremely nauseous due to the sheer amount of weight she had shifted in such a short amount of time. Her stomach already cramping like mad; protesting to any more moment lest she begin to throw up. _

_ROAR! _

_She heard forcing herself to look up at the scene was the slowly becoming visible to her from her cracked visor, her ears still painfully ringing from the sound of Izuku's last attack. She could see even from here that Izuku was heavily injured, his hands or claws more accurately were bloody and raw with blood dripping freely. He was shaking and twitching almost struggling to remain standing with every step he was taking forward. _

_Ochako could feel Eri moving getting up on her own, with a look on her face that Ochako had never seen before on the young girl before, Ochako tried to call out to her, but even the thought of opening her mouth threatened to release the contents of her stomach._

_ROAR! _

_She heard again, it sounded so painful to her, Izuku must be in so much pain for him to sound like that, as she slowly managed to lift herself up, as she did she also felt Eri finally slip from her grasp and began running toward Izuku with something in her hand; something that Ochako hadn't noticed before. It took moment for Ochako to process what exactly was happening until Eri was already out of her reach. _

"_Eri!" She managed to breathe out, nausea be damned, Ochako felt the adrenaline pumping into her as she gained a second wind to start following her. _

"_Hurry move!" She heard someone else say, unsure who exactly as her focus was at the situation in front of her. She saw Izuku turn and reached for Eri. For a split second Ochako had to admit she was scared when she saw those blood red eyes surrounded by darkness. Yet just as fast as they appeared and with a simple blink, Izuku's eyes became green and bloodshot before closing. _

_Eri had almost reached Izuku, when he suddenly fell with a flash, his body turning back to normal, his wounds that had been inflicted during his shifted state, opening wider as his body shrank back to his normal size. A side effect was a cloud of blood that seemed to burst from Izuku just before collapsing to the ground. The sight made Eri scream seeing Izuku fall like that right in front of her. _

_Ochako however continued to run toward them, only to see the man that Izuku had fought; trying to take advantage of the situation and had begun reaching for Eri who had begun to back away from him. The sight made Ochako pump her legs harder trying to close the distance before it was too late, and for a moment Ochako thought it was too late when she saw the man touch her. Only for him to scream as he began clutching at his neck. Eri had managed to stab him with something, that she would later learn; had been one of Ryu's EQ pens effectively stopping the man from using his quirk. _

_That didn't stop him from striking Eri with the back of his hand, and that was the moment that when Ochako decided right then and there to unleashed hell on the man. As the moment Ochako reached a temporarily de-powered Overhaul, was the moment the man had to relearn to what fear meant once again, as Ochako simply proceeded to beat the ever loving shit out of the man,striking him repeatedly with her fists, until both her hands and his face were left bloody and raw. Finally she slapped him hard across the face making him float and before making her last move.  
_

_"SHIFT MAX OUTPUT! RELEASE!" She said making Overhaul slam into the ground by shifting his weight __hard enough to leave an indent of his body on the floor. _

_It was only once the man was completely still; was the moment that Ochako could let loose the build up of vomit she had been fighting back thanks to the adrenaline that was finally leaving her. She ended up throwing up on top of Overhaul's unconscious body, not that she cared about that. When she finished, she collapsed backward seeing, that Eri was now reaching for Izuku, with an angry red mark on her face, from where Overhaul had hit her. _

_The ground by Izuku was pooling rapidly with blood, dirtying Eri's already stained clothes, Ochako barely had any strength left to reach her, the last thing she saw before awaking up in the recovery room was Eri starting to glow. _

Now she was here back in her apartment, while they were in the hospital. Ochako sat back up, to hell with it. She would check, if they needed space or needed support, either way a phone call would answer either and would respect either choice. Ochako nervously brought Inko's contact number and started the call. Her heart pounding with nerves, as she heard it ring without answer. After what seemed like an hour, despite being only a few seconds at most, the phone was answered.

"Mrs. Midoriya? It's me." Ochako began saying doing her best to keep her voice steady and not trying to sound nervous.

"_You got the right number, Pink Cheeks, but Inko is checking on Eri right now and left her phone here."_ A familiar voice said over the phone, making Ochako mentally facepalm herself with a realization that should have been painfully obvious to her now. The Bakugou family must have known the truth as well, given how close the two are, how could she had not realized that sooner?!

"Hello Mrs. Bakugou," Ochako answered her.

_"Why did you call?"_

Ochako pouted, this call was meant for Inko, not Mitsuki, but she knew not to shake the boat with the Bakugou family, especially given how much like mother and son where. Still she felt like it wasn't any of Mitsuki's business, but given that Mitsuki had been trusted enough by the Midoriya's she decided to bite the bullet.

"I wanted to know how Izuku and Eri are doing...and if I can possibly stop by to visit?"

"_They both doing fine and both are napping right now...but that isn't my concern girl. My concern now is you." _

Ochako didn't like Mitsuki's tone, but decided not to back down.

"What you mean?"

"_You want to visit? Even after seeing the news? After knowing that we had kept you in the dark the whole time? I have a very hard time believing that, unless you were working an angle."_

Ochako felt a twitch of anger running down her body. She understood why she was being defensive but it seemed unfair to judge her like that, Ochako decided to double-down, if there was anything she learned from Katsuki was backing down was sign of weakness. It was a philosophy that she disagreed with but, she knew that Mitsuki was most likely going to be the same way.

"Yes. Even after seeing the news, because I know Izuku, the real Izuku, not the Izuku that the media is trying to sell to everyone else...as for keeping the secret...I kind of figured it out on my own to be honest...I saw his quirk in full during the battle trial and then I looked up an old staff picture of Draco Knight's agency. It had Mrs. Midoriya and Ryukyu featured on it...I never said anything because I was scared of rocking the boat...and to be honest...I've always been a Draco Knight fangirl." Ochako finished up, turning red as she admitted that last part.

Mitsuki went silent, which made Ochako nervous as she didn't know if it was a good or bad sign.

_"Okay now I know you're full of shit." _Mitsuki said with a laugh. _"It takes guts to confess that last bit to a stranger knowing Hisashi's reputation." _

Ochako jumped at the revelation, Draco Knight's first name had been Hisashi, but still did not appreciate being called a liar or "full of shit" as she so beautifully put it.

"I'm not lying! It's the truth!" Ochako proclaimed refusing to back down.

Mitsuki laughed again, but this time she said something that surprised her.

_"Okay then. I want proof of your fangirl status and it better be physical special proof, so no basic toys, or posters. I want something substantial, but here is the twist. I'm not the one who will be judging." _

Ochako stood there with a smirk growing on her face, she had the perfect thing right in front of her hanging on her wall. A limited edition item so rare that only 20 were ever made.

_"Tomorrow, you'll go to Izu's apartment. Katsuki and Yuu are there. Show him your proof and if he decides to believe you, then you win. And I will concede with a complete apology, unless you want to back out no-." _

"Challenge accepted then," Ochako answered with confidence. "I will be seeing you tomorrow and I expect that apology from you Mrs. Bakugou."

Ochako might have laughed if she could have seen the look on Mitsuki's face at the moment, that was stuck somewhere between stunned and angry, but may have also contained a begrudging and growing respect for the lass who decided not to back down.

'Looks like Izu, picked a real winner here.'

"_Then see you tomorrow Uraraka." _

"If I must," Ochako japed that made the elder Bakugou laugh.

And with that Ochako hung up, stuck somewhere between irked and sad. It was annoying that she had to do this dumb challenge, but Ochako could also see the other side. Mitsuki clearly cared dearly for Inko and Izuku to the point that she had to this to people. What had the Midoriyas been through to get to this point?

Still now she was sure that if she could get the approval, that her support would be welcomed and that was enough for her, with a heavy yawn. Ochako was worn out from the day's events, and decided to have a light dinner, skip her workout, take a shower and hit the hay early. She looked at the medal that hung on her wall, aside from being the proof she needed, she had an idea to make tomorrow maybe a little more special.

* * *

_Eri walked again with Izuku and Ochako by her side, going on another picnic like before, only this time, Eri walked in fear of him, of that man appearing again._

_The dream had been just like before; they had arrived at that same beautiful lake, only this time, there were no ducks to be found in the water. As the trio began to break out the yummy food. Eri began to cry; feeling that same fear as before, when she finally saw him again. Overhaul was reaching for Izuku and Ochako behind them,reaching out hands un-gloved going for the kill. _

_She was about to scream, when she heard Overhaul scream instead. Eri looked up and instead of the two being dead like before. They were now standing up in their hero costumes fighting back, and when it seemed like Overhaul would strike back. _

_He was pushed back again with help, Eri turned around and saw all of Class 1-A surrounding her, protecting her just like Izuku had promised. Katsuki blasted him with his explosions, Ryu and Shouto blasted him with fire, Momo blasted him with a canon. Everyone pushed him back, until he was forced to retreat, the sky was no longer dark. And the picnic continued with everyone else joining in and for the first time. Eri felt her mouth curve upward. _

At the hospital Inko had noticed Eri had begun to stir and fidget in her sleep, remembering that this could have been the start of one of her night terrors. Inko's fears seemed confirmed when she saw the tears run down her face and was about to called the nurse, when Eri simply stopped and settled back into the bed with a sigh, leaving Inko stunned when she saw Eri smiling in her sleep for the very first time.

* * *

**Authors Commentary**

Ah it feels good to get this chapter out, I got stuck with a few scenes, because my habit to spoil stuff in my early drafts and found that it happened more than once.

Fun fact...or not so fun depending on who you ask. Last week, I almost got killed at my job site (literally) when some moron in a forklift (he's been fired fyi) knocked over some...key equipment that weighed about 3 tons...I had just been walking past in the safe crossing where it is supposed to be safe even if such a thing happened, but I guess someone dropped the ball.(I bet that OSHA is pissed right now)

Anyways yeah...about 5 feet was the difference between me being completely unharmed and standing there looking back as I see a bunch of stuff fall at the spot I had been walking seconds earlier and being crushed by said stuff.

Soooo yeah...good times, at the very least my boss is basically kissing my ass right now and I got my month long vacation approved no more questions asked. (FYI I am going on vacation next month, but this shouldn't effect my upload schedule)

My birthday falls on September 9th and the anniversary of the Original version of the story falls on the 11th and this time I will be deleting the original version on that date.

Anyways that is all for now. The next chapter _**Revelations I** _will be out as soon as possible.

Until then my dear readers and as always with lots of love.

_**-X**_


	25. Revelations I

Phew sorry that took a while guys. Between my road trip, still being on vacation. (And this chapter was a real pain in my ass due a number of reasons)

But after two all nighters (I'm on vacation so no harm) and..I honestly don't remember how much redbull I've had...or caffeine tablets.

ANYWAYS! Thank you so some of my readers who remembered that my birthday had passed on Sept. 9th and I honestly forgot that I had mentioned that in my last authors notes. I had a wonderful time with friends and family I haven't seen in years.

Got drunk...and lost for a day or two...Had a great cake and just got treated out to a bunch of places. Seriously I haven't been this happy in ages and its gotten me far more motivated to write, since I'm far more mentally refreshed.

On that note, I am pleased to announce that I have started the initial drafts of my very first novel, which is finally out of the outlining and world building phase. (BECAUSE I NEED TO PLAN BEFORE I CAN WRITE)

Which does mean, that updates maybe just a tad bit longer and I am canceling other long term fics that I had planned. But this story and all of its supplemental works in the "Untold Universe" will continue as planned, just like I promised.

On that note, I would like to remind the readers who read both The Fafnir Knight and Draco Knight, that while you guys got one hell of a bombshell in the last chapter, I please request that you at least try to keep certain spoilers to yourselves.

Now a couple of quick things that have been repeatedly brought up to me recently that I should address (especially considering the AO3 method of tagging) Is other ships in this story. One thing I plan to do in some situations (except IzuOcha because that is on course no exceptions)

But some other characters may be in temporary relationships before settling in on their main/permanent ship. Once a permanent is set and has sailed it will be added to the tag on AO3 and in the case of FFN. I will be confirming said ship in the author's commentary in the end of the chapter in which that ship has sailed.

Also I keep having some people ask if I have checked out certain fics.

Like _**What's in the Hoard? **_by_** Titus621. **_

Which I find a bit funny, because for whose who do not know. This fic inspired _**What's in the Hoard?**_, and you can confirm this by checking the AO3 version of that story where Titus linked the AO3 version of my story there. Titus is a cool guy and while _**What's in the Hoard?**_ is personally not my thing due me to not being a big fan of Poly or Harem stories in the MHA setting, it is still a fic that people should check out if you do enjoy it. As Titus is a cool guy and I'm glad his story is doing well (far more than mine) but I'm not here to be popular, I just want to tell the story I want like he does.

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Anyway that is it for now. Enjoy the chapter.

**Reviews **(About damn time)

I'll just say for the people who voiced concerns for my safety. I'm perfectly fine Thanks!

**_Ooobserver:_** I do my best to fill every chapter with questions, answers and just some stuff to make you guys think if you pay close attention.

**_Patrickthenobleman: _**They not the only ones, but we'll get to see more who is on the Izuku camp and who isn't in the next few chapters.

**_D3lph0xLov3r: _**Bruv relax. I'm in no way trying to say you should like one character or another. All I am doing is displaying that these characters are more complex are not simply bad for the sake of being bad and these characters do have reasons to do the things they do. Sometimes petty and sometimes for real causes even at the cost of others.

**_JaxTheKnight2319: _**Maybe? All I can say is that at least the next few chapters will be a little shorter but also a bit more hopeful and lighter in tone.

**_TheImmortalAce: _**Hahaha oh no man, I am more than aware of Overhaul being a major germaphobe which the very reason why I wrote that little detail just to rub in to his loss. And let's just say I'm not done shitting on Overhaul just yet. I have something very special for him down the line.

**_Moonstar31548: _**Not gonna lie that is something I am looking forward to writing as well. And as for Eri, her condition will improve with time, but she still needs far more time, before she is completely free of Overhaul's influence. **_  
_**

…._**Jetstar77: **_….Wow...okay I have no idea where to begin with that comment. Because shit that was some serious dedication (albeit the spelling and grammar could have been a bit better ya know?) But I am glad you did this, because I'm not going to lie. This is the kind of story that, I would recommend rereading at key points to pick up on the small details you may have missed the first time. Or realized what were red herrings and what wasn't when certain things are revealed. Your comment contains both.

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**Recommendation** (Haven't done this in a while!)

This chapter's recommendation goes to _**The Yakuza isn't that bad by Raider867**_

I believe this is still a AO3 exclusive, but I recommend FFN and Wattpad users to check this story out. As it is an interesting twist to the MHA universe. All I can say for sure is that, it is nothing what I expected but in a good way.  
Plus it is Izuocha+ Eri so that kind of warrants it alone. HAHA.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

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_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc II: The Incident **_

_**Chapter XXV: Revelations I**_

* * *

_**"There's an old saying that if a lie is told often enough, it becomes the truth. Actually, it doesn't. What happens is that people simply start believing that it's true." **_

**_-Bailey Jackson, How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others_**

* * *

_ Screams and cries as she remembered that horrible bloody night thirteen years ago. It had been her first major government mission that she had to do shortly after her graduation from UA. It was The Incident that changed her life forever. _

"_Midnight do you copy?" The voice in her earpiece asked panicked, as she managed to get some of the rubble off of her. Tears of her failure ran down her face as she saw the bodies of the children... many had been crushed from the wreckage and the fire continued to spread. _

"_HOLY SHIT!"_

_There was a loud painful roar that rang out, as screams and cries could be heard in the distance. As a policeman in full SWAT Armor arrived to help her up. She could barely make out what he was saying as the ringing in her ears was still running, the only reason she could hear from her earpiece, was because it was right in her ear._

"_Help! -night is out, -control! Figh- stil- rescu-" Was all she hear as she was pulled out of the bunker that had housed the trapped children. The ringing in her ears was starting to go way now being able to hear the crackle of the flames. _

_She could feel the tremors of the battle, Draco Knight must have his hands full at the moment. _

"_EVERYONE KEEP YOUR DISTANCE, THE VILLAIN KNOWN AS THE PHOENIX KING IS HERE AND IS CURRENTLY ENGAGED IN COMBAT AGAINST DRACO KNIGHT!" She could hear the operations commander order from her earpiece. _

_As if on cue; the body of The Phoenix King was rammed through the wall as a Berserk Draco Knight with those ruby red eyes continued his assault without any chance for his opponent to counterattack. The two struggled, The Phoenix King's costume had been torn apart revealing an bloody face housed the most wicked of grins._

_Midnight was dragged by the officer to hide behind a collapsed wall, but Midnight could still see from holes in the wall. The Phoenix King was saying something to Draco Knight, but due to the distance. She couldn't hear him, nor could she tell if Draco Knight could even understand him at the moment. _

_No matter if he could or not, as the moment The Phoenix King stopped speaking, Draco Knight roared again as he began to violently head-butt the man, until he stopped moving, only for Draco Knight to deliver a clawed hand into the man's chest cavity and ripped out his still beating heart. _

_Draco Knight roared one last time, it was hollow painful sounding roar as he continued to clutch the heart in his claw as its final beats pumped out. _

"_COMMANDER DOUMEKI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING SIR!?" Midnight could now hear the officer next to her yell out, as another officer in full SWAT Armor armed only with large metal riot tower shield and a small white object, sprinting as fast as he could toward Draco Knight. _

_Draco Knight turned to see the large man running toward him; he dropped the heart and charged toward the officer, tearing the metal shield with ease with his claws, and tearing into the man. Instead of falling, the officer embraced the berserk hero in a large bear-hug; stabbing him with the white object between the thick scales of his armor. _

_Draco Knight roared as he struggled to remove the officer off of him, only for him to flash violently back into his normal human form, blood pouring out of him as the EQ Pen took effect. _

_The two men collapsed as the battle was now over, Midnight knew she had to act now that she could move properly again. As she and the officer who had help her moved toward Hisashi and the SWAT commander, she stole a glance at the body of one of the underworld's most infamous villains. His face was too bloody to make out his features, but even in death, she could still see the man's golden eyes shining along with that wicked grin frozen on his face that now served as his Death Mask._

_Midnight blinked and found herself no longer looking at the body of the Phoenix King, but the body of Overhaul, next him was Izuku bloody and broken, and next to him; Ochako Uraraka with her stomach torn. _

Nemuri screamed awake from her vicious nightmare, covered in sweat and trembling from head to toe. She hadn't had a nightmare about that night in years, shortly before she joined the UA staff.

The Nursery Incident, what a terribly ironic code name for that mess of an operation.

"It was just a dream...Midoriya and Uraraka are safe." She said to herself, trying to reassure herself that she was alright. She needed to be strong for her students when they returned to class next Monday. She looked at her alarm clock.

_**5:39am**_

It was only twenty-one minutes until her alarm would have woken her up anyway, and maybe it was be better this way, she needed to go to a staff meeting in preparation for the press conference UA was holding later today. She may have been there, but she was still very curious to hear the final report from the police that would be announced, before the conference in preparation for UA's conference.

Today Nemuri couldn't be Midnight, she needed to be Nemuri Kayama a teacher and professional.

* * *

"I'm glad you're awake Ryu," Saya said warmly, as she gently brushed her adopted son's hair. Which Ryu begrudging had to admit to himself was welcomed, he never had a mother before and even though he had lived with the Doumeki's for the past ten months or so, he still tended to keep to himself. Saya however had been nothing more than a complete sweetheart to him and it proved difficult to keep up his more aloof tendencies while in their home.

Ryu has gotten used to wearing multiple masks with two in particular being used while living with his two adopted parents; the first was worn only when he was alone with Kai, it was his mask as a spy. With Saya however he always kept a firm air of politeness and professionalism; it was similar to the mask he wore at UA. He wanted to avoid getting close to people due to his mission. Fake smiles, fake friends; after all he is nothing more than a liar at UA, and it was all to protect what really matter to him to complete his own objectives.

Right now however, he neither had the strength or mood to keep up such a façade. Right now he was simply Ryu, in his most basic form; the one who had leapt into action despite the fact that could have been much easier and far less painful to have let his classmates burn.

_'Fuck...maybe it would have been easier if I simply never woke up...but then again...I'm cursed...I'm not allowed to die yet.'_

Ryu thought to himself with a small grin growing on his face. He turned to face his adoptive mother, who had been completely unaware of the true reason why Ryu had been adopted in their household. He had only been cleared for visitors less than an hour ago, and hadn't been informed on the status of anyone else.

"Thanks...umm, Mrs. Doumeki? Do you know if everyone else made it out okay?" Ryu asked remembering the ones in the Conflagration Zone. Saya's gentle face changed to slightly sad expression, before she answered.

"I got some details from Kai, thankfully everyone is alive and expected to make a full recovery...well except for one unfortunately."

"Who?"

"One of the seniors, the American I believe? I hear he isn't going to make it, such a shame." Saya answered sadly, she never like hearing about children getting hurt. Hero Candidates or not, they were still high school students looked up at the white ceiling of his hospital room. He didn't know the seniors all too well, so as cold hearted as it seemed, Ryu just couldn't feel bad for the guy. Still it was regrettable what happened to him.

* * *

Alex laid in his hospital bed, completely still save for the life support systems that was keeping him alive, as he was surrounded by Mirio, Tamaki, Nejire and Mezou, who collectively tried their best to support Lucy, Alex's cousin and legal guardian while in country. As they had just gotten the news that their friend and teammate would most likely never wake up.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Barton...but I recommend you contact his parents, so we an make a more direct decision on what to do with him," The doctor said as gently as possible, before leaving the room for the group to absorb the news, Lucy however simply collapsed into her cousin's side wailing as she did.

"**You damn idiot...How could you have let this happen?!"** She cried in English as she held her comatose cousin's hand.

"Shouji could you hold down the fort for a moment?" Mirio asked Mezou, while Nejire and Tamaki had began to comfort Lucy. Mezou gave him a simple nod, their leader was a stubborn guy who would try what ever he could. Stopping him now would be difficult.

"Thanks,"Mirio whispered before slipping out of the room to catch up with the doctor.

"Excuse me doctor?" Mirio called out to the lady, who thankfully hadn't gotten too far.

"Yes?" She answered to the young hero.

"Are you sure...that you can't go anything for him?" Mirio pleaded hoping that their was someway to save his friend. "A special healing quirk? A specialist? Anything at all please."

The doctor looked away, she knew from being on the job for so many years, the stages of grief were different for everyone.

_**Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.* **_

Judging from the young man pleads, Mirio could be some where between Denial and Bargaining.

"With the amount of blood Mr. Springfield lost, and the amount of time it took to get him medical attention cause a significant amount of brain damage due to a lack of oxygen. Even with some of the most powerful healing quirks at our disposal, they cannot turn back the clock on him." She answered him. "The damage is too severe to healed the traditional way...the only way, I could think of that would be able to restore him would be something akin to time travel...no more like reloading a previous save point in a video game or I don't know even rewinding him, but I've never heard of a quirk being able to do such a thing before."

For a brief moment, Mirio looked crestfallen as he began to take in the doctor's words, until he remembered one very important detail from the USJ. Mirio blinked as a smile grew on his face, it was a long shot, but it was best than nothing at all.

"Thank you for your time doctor," Mirio responded politely before bowing to the physician.

The doctor smiled and turned the gesture, however just before turning away, Mirio asked one last question.

"Doctor, I have one last quick question...do you know if Mr. Aizawa is wake yet?"

* * *

Izuku sat on his bed having a late lunch of Katsudon being after being permitted to eat solid foods by his physician, he tried his best to eat, but found no desire to fill his belly. He knew that his body was hungry, due to having used so much power during his battle with Overhaul. Yet nothing would go down, with the food becoming like ash in his mouth. It did not help his mood when, Mitsuki had briefly flipped on the news only for him be reminded that the _Heir of Disaster _had been found.

There was this irony with the way his true identity had been discovered, with a saving grace being that almost everyone was more focused on the failure of UA security and the Volatile Quirk Act, rather than Izuku actually attending UA, however, it only made it much more difficult to gauge how the public was reacting about him, making his future that much more unclear.

He knew that there was going to be an official UA press conference that will share the Final Report of the incident soon. That report would most likely contain the general summary of the event; including the details like who had been the combatants. His worry also extended to Eri, given that she had been involved in this could only compound the situation. The conference would reveal not only his fate, but possibility hers as well.

"You gotta eat something Izu," Mitsuki pleaded to the boy, who simply picked at his food with a dishearten look on his face. Not knowing just how much was going through the boy's head at the moment. Izuku however simply had no appetite to eat, he knew that he was hungry, but felt no urge to eat, even when it was his favorite food.

Mitsuki frowned, she knew that Izuku needed support and wished that she could have Katsuki and Yuu over to try and cheer Izuku up. However they couldn't be too sure just yet that they were in the clear. Not to mention there was Ochako who seemed determined to make her way here, Mitsuki may have had some slight regrets in speaking to Ochako like she did yesterday.

It was a rough emotional day and Mitsuki was on high alert to protect her best friend and the boy who was basically a second son to her. Hell if it was anyone weaker, they might have been completely driven way by Mitsuki's more direct attitude. Deep down Mitsuki knew that Izuku needed to branch out, to get out of his comfort zone, it was the same with Katsuki, the two relied on each far too much for them to have a completely healthy relationship. Izuku and Katsuki both needed other friends for them to grow and develop; especially now more than ever with Izuku's exposure.

* * *

"Thank you All Might, that's a relief to hear," Inko said quietly on her phone, in the corner of Eri's hospital room. "Yes of course, I'll make sure that we watch the press conference, I think Izuku will need the pick-me-up now more than ever."

"_Not a problem, thankfully the law is clear, and you've done everything by the books. Not to mention the police report should help with Izuku's P.R, I can assure you that, if it wasn't for your son, the situation could have been far more dire." _All Might responded, fresh out of the meeting in preparation for the press conference.

It made Inko's heart beat much easier to hear this critical reassurance. She had been worried with the possibility of the government would try to find a loophole in order to have Izuku or herself arrested for something in order to quell the public. Thankfully its seemed like the public while concerned about Izuku without a doubt, had bigger fish to fry.

"I hope everything goes well you and UA, All Might," Inko stated now worried about her son's mentor and her boss.

"_No worries, I have to take responsibility for not arriving until after the big battle, but that what the press conference is for, well Ms. Midoriya. If you will excuse me, I need a bit more time to prepare, and to look over the files for Eri. We still need to complete the third portion of her assessment, but I think could justify a small extended grace period, once Aizawa gets back to work."_

"Of course sir. Thank you again." Inko breathed out as she hung up her cell phone.

"Was it Mister All Might Inko?" Eri asked with a slightly worried look on her face as Inko pulled the curtain to see, her ward.

"Yes dear, but don't worry, it was good news okay?" Inko cooed warmly, while patting the white hair child's head. "Finish up your food and we'll be able to see Izuku okay?"

Eri nodded before asking one more question. "What about Chako?"

Inko flinched for a moment, she hadn't heard anything from Ochako, though she was unaware of the conversation that the girl in question had with her best friend. She feared that Ochako could be keep her distance now that she knew the truth or even worse could have been the person who leaked out some of Izuku's personal information. She thought about calling her, but she couldn't help but be scared of what would happen if she did.

* * *

"_We are here live at UA, where we are expected to hear from both a representative from the police and then from the UA Staff which will include All Might very soon." _The reporter stated with a firm voice as several others from the press corps was taking their seats in one of UA's Multi-Purpose rooms.

Katsuki and Yuu where seated on one the couches of the Midoriya household, having spent the night there, they had spend most of their day going over what Mitsuki had told them. They knew Ochako could be there at any moment, much to Katsuki's annoyance as he continued to watch the news waiting for that key report.

"Careful Katsu," Yuu warned see that familiar look on her cousin's face. "I know that you're suspicious, but I think you and auntie Mitsuki are being too on guard with Uraraka."

"Can't be too careful...we've made that mistake before." Katsuki answered stiffly.

"Look at the news Katsu! Everyone has been more focused on UA and the government rather than just focusing on Izu!"

"And that could change in a heart beat once the final report is presented idiot!" Katsuki roared out his retort. "Besides, you didn't see everyone's reaction back in class. I know...no matter what; things will be different when we return to UA."

"I'm not doubting that Katsu." Yuu replied. "But I don't think it's going to be as bad as you think."

"Don't forget that, the date of uncle's death is coming up next week. No doubt some asshole journalist are going to being that up. After the _Heir of Disaster _had been found...fucking pricks."

**_Knock Knock Knock._**

The two cousins jumped to their feet as they heard the knock at the door.

"Check the peep-hole Katsu." Yuu whispered, as she lowered the volume on the television. Katsuki growled at his cousin for ordering him, but knew that she had a point. Katsuki slowly walked toward the door,only for the knocks to be repeated as he got closer. He peered through the peep-hole and confirmed Ochako was outside the door sporting a nervous looking expression on her face.

"It's Round-Face," Katsuki whispered back to Yuu, who simply motioned him to answer the door, while she stood back just in case things got bad. Katsuki sighed, the moment of truth, the door was knocked on again for a third time, only for Katsuki to slam the open door, midway of the knocks making Ochako jump back squeaking in surprise.

"We heard you the first time Round-Face," Katsuki stated bluntly to Ochako, who quickly recovered from the initial shock.

"And hello to you too Bakugou," Ochako responded with already getting annoyed by Katsuki's attitude. Hell she was annoyed that she basically had to redo this whole shtick with the Bakugous just to get to the Midoriyas.

"Sooo, you're here," Katsuki began as looked down at the brunette.

"Only because of your mom was being as hardheaded as you." Ochako shot back, not willing to put up Katsuki unwarranted attitude toward her.

Katsuki could already feel his blood pressure rising as Yuu began to snicker from living room.

"What do you want?" Katsuki demanded refusing to back down now.

"I just want to see my friend who is in the hospital Bakugou, why is that so hard to believe?" Ochako answered putting her foot down. "Why do I need to jump through all of these ridiculous hoops just to see Izuku, Inko and Eri?"

"What do you even know about him?!" Katsuki roared voice straining, "You've only known him for a couple of months! While being lied to all the same! Where do you get off addressing them by their given names Round-Face?!"

Yuu began to slowly tip-toe her way to the door in case Katsuki got violent, she knew that voice, it won't surprise her if he accidentally blew up the bandages on his hands.

"He's kind, incredibly sweet and smart! He's a giant nerd who could use a bit more self-confidence but given how he grew up in fear, I can get why he is so jumpy!" Ochako answered back. "He has the patience to be friends with you, who could just be so damn testing when you don't need to be!"

Ochako breathed in for a moment, she hated feeling like this, but Katsuki had pushed to her the edge. They weren't friends yet, mostly just respectful due to having a mutual friend. She respected him, but she also had her frustrations with him that needed to be aired out now.

"My name is Ochako Uraraka...not Round-Face, not Pink-Cheeks not any other damn nickname! I want to be friends with you too, but you keep pushing me back; it's like you...don't want Izuku or yourself to have other friends! For you that is one thing,but you can't decide that for Izuku! That's for him to choose on his own..as for that last bit...I..I don't even remember the moment, when we started calling each other by our given names..but...it just felt natural. And you guys never lied to me, I never asked Izuku if he was related to Draco Knight or not and given how the media wanted to demonize him...I can't blame him for hiding it."

Katsuki actually took a step back in surprise at Ochako's answer. Ochako however continued to speak.

"And yet also want to become a hero, because once upon a time it was because a boy who helped me, a very special person who showed me; what a hero could be a long time ago...but since I met Izuku and especially after we found Eri, my reasons changed...I no longer wanted to be a Hero just because of that boy...I wanted to be a Pro-Hero for a different reason. I wanted to save people like Eri to make them smile more like All Might...or in my case like Draco Knight once did for me."

As she finished up Ochako pulled out the Knight's Commander Medal from her pocket before showing it to Katsuki. Katsuki's eyes grew seeing it, despite his hands still being bandaged, he gently grabbed the medal to inspect it. The details, the craftsmanship, the beautifully carved number nine behind the medal, that mirrored his Grand Cross that he still kept in its box under his bed.

This was one of the medals that was given out years ago, nineteen to the public...two in the private. After a few more moments Katsuki give the medal back to its owner. He couldn't admit it...but she had him beat in a way he just couldn't compete, deep down, he knew this day would come. One of his greatest fears to be replaced in his best friend's life. It was a bit silly for the lad to admit it, but the fear had been growing and festering ever since Ochako came into Izuku's life. It didn't help that one of Ochako's jabs; hit harder than expected.

"Shizuoka General, room 367." He said quietly while looking down, his eyes hidden under his hair. "I'll let them know you're coming over there."

Ochako sighed with relief, before giving the ash blond a smile.

"Thank you!" She chirped before making her way to the train station.

Yuu stood with a look of both shock and awe from her cousin, she could see him trembling so she knew as much as she wanted to make her own quips. She knew it wouldn't be right to do so right now. Instead Yuu quickly but gingerly closed the door for Katsuki who simply went back into the couch and slumped on it.

"I'm surprised you just stopped...I honestly expected that to go longer," Yuu tried to joke casually to lighten the mood while Katsuki remained silent.

Was he partly responsible for Izuku's lack of friends? Did his paranoia only make things worse? Could he have done better all these years? Did he fail his uncle? His master?

"Katsu?" Yuu called out to him.

Katsuki sighed, maybe Ochako was right as much as he hated the idea of even admitting it, that despite his efforts, he could have accidentally made things worse for Izuku. Maybe he just needed to give Izuku some more space...after all they're both after the same goal to be the number one hero. And neither would get there if they continually baby-sat each other.

"You know something occurred to me?" Yuu wondered aloud, making Katsuki's ears perk up. "Uraraka mentioned that she had a special boy who helped her before, doesn't that sound a bit like Izu's story? You know the one Katsu, that cute story about the girl Izu helped all those years ago?"

Katsuki snorted with a laughter, "Man, what kind of fanfic bullshit have you been reading? Come on get real! Besides Uraraka is from out of town, while I'm pretty sure the girl was local...I think."

"Just saying, it would really sweet. Two childhood sweethearts split up for sooo long; only to reunite years later, unable to remember each and only to fall in love all over again!" Yuu began saying over dramatically while pretending to swoon.

"I want a hit of whatever you've been smoking to even think that shit would happen in real life," Katsuki retorted with a roll of his eyes.

"You're just salty that I've been able to win our last few bets in the ships of _Between The Realms_. OMG NeMia for win ah~" Yuu jabbed at her cousin.

"But soo damn cliché! AND that ship was bullshit! The author simply caved from fan pressure over that garage tier ship. Besides the series isn't over yet, there are still some ships I can win at."

"Whatever Katsu, I'm personally looking forward to my next set of snacks courtesy of you."

Katsuki simply grumbled as the press conference continued without them paying attention.

"_We can conclude so far is that the villains in question were after All Might, however we are investigating there could have be further motive for the assault at the USJ." _

* * *

Ochako was almost at the hospital with a nervous look on her face. All the while listening to the conference live on her headphones. She wasn't the only one, all throughout the train and even on the screens on the train that was normally for basic things like weather and traffic was streaming the press conference.

For the most part it seemed like press tried hard to make UA look bad, but she could also tell that the press wasn't getting the reaction they wanted.

_"And what about any further issues with security, especially with the up coming sports festival next month Principal Nezu?" _She heard one reporter ask while she looked out the window, trying to keep her mind off the negative and focus on the positive. She only started listening to the conference after she got on the train so she wasn't sure if they had gotten to questions about Izuku or not.

"_We are proceeding as normal and thanks to several generous offers from several pro-heroes who have offered to volunteer and act as additional security for the event. Not to mention police and government have offered their own additional support." Nezu answered calmly._

She could see the rumbles and mutterings from the press clearly, even catching the odd whisper here and there around her.

"_We're almost done here sir, but I have question that I'm sure almost everyone has, but has been waiting for this moment to ask. So I guess I will take the chance to address the elephant in the room. While the final report did confirm that not only is Draco Knight's son, Izuku Midoriya is attending UA, but that he could also have the same destructive power as his father. Do you plan to impose any restrictions or considered placing the boy on probation as the Volatile Quark laws prescribe?" _

Ochako's heart almost stopped at the question, hell the whole train went silent as they have began touching on the one of the most concerning topics. She couldn't see that Nezu shook his head before answering, but his response however quickly gave her some relief.

_"First I must remind you that those kinds of questions could be considered very inappropriate as it violates the privacy of a minor and student. However for the sake of public and only due to the fact I was already given permission to answer. No, Mr. Midoriya came to UA following the laws to the letter, this can be verified by the police who had to investigate this issue separately and came up clean. Second Mr. Midoriya has not met the criteria to be placed on probation due to some of the ways the language was written and used in order to warrant such a status...but I believe that should be taken up with the authors of the law rather than UA." _

Ochako couldn't help but feel that Principal Nezu was enjoying himself during that question. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something about his tone almost seemed gleeful?

* * *

_**"THAT LITTLE RAT!"** _Hideoyshi violently spat out in his office, causing several of his fellow members to run for cover as books proceed to fly striking those unfortunate enough not to get to said cover on time.

* * *

Honestly it may have just been Ochako's imagination, but she was glad to hear that Izuku wasn't going get the third degree; now that they were aware that the probation system existed with two people each from Class 1-A and 1-B, having that status loom over their heads.

"Man the kid is getting off scot-free?"

"I mean you heard the report too...if anything the kid helped save everyone right?"

"Yeah so did Draco Knight before he went nuts remember? The kid is a ticking time bomb."

Ochako could feel irked as she started to hear all of the different voices around the train each voicing the topic with their own opinion. She wanted to tell them all off to stop them from talking about her friend like that, thankfully someone else began to answer the reporter. One who gained everyone's attention.

"_Izuku Midoriya has been an excellent, hard working student."_ The familiar warm voice of All Might began saying. _"He's is polite with thus far excelling in, grades, work ethic and leadership. The boy was even elected as president for his homeroom class and will be the first year representative at the sports festival."_

Now this got everyone's attention, when the world's symbol of peace was coming to your defense everyone was listening in.

"_If you want to judge the lad, then judge him by his own actions, not by his legacy. Let the Sports Festival be his chance to show you what he could do with his power."_

Ochako smiled as she saw some of the looks on several of the earlier naysayers faces. It was hard to disagree with a man that many trusted when he came to the defense of someone, she leaned back to moment, before she saw the train signal her stop. The hospital wasn't far from the station.

* * *

When Ochako entered the hospital she was surprised to see a familiar face in the lobby looking over the directory.

"Tokoyami, hello there!" Ochako greeted the bird-headed boy cheerfully making him jump as she caught him by surprise and making him drop some flowers he had on hand.

"Oops! I'm sorry about that." She said bashfully as the young man quickly recovered while Dark Shadow appeared from its host to pick up the flowers.

"You're fine...I should have been paying more attention," Fumikage answered with a cough. "I'm glad to see you well Uraraka...I'm assume you are here to visit Midoriya?" The boy said lowering his voice when he brought up Izuku.

Ochako nodded, "I only just got the time to see him and Eri today. What about you?"

Fumikage looked at the flowers in his arms before answering her. "I'm here to wish Asui and...Komori? I believe her name is? Anyways yes, I am here to wish them well as both were with me during the USJ. Unfortunately I allowed for both to be harmed when I should have been more than strong enough to intervene."

"But Tokoyami...you did a lot! You helped save Eri from the fire zone! Which I owe you thanks for that."

"I'm afraid, I cannot take full credit for that however." Fumikage retorted with an uncomfortable look on his face. "I do not know why, but the final report failed to mention several things. Including our collective rescue thanks to Kasei."

Ochako looked surprised, and realized that there were some thing missing from the report. "Come to think of it...I know there was some things that weren't mentioned at all."

_'Like the bounty on Kaminari's head.'_ She thought to herself, remembering the statement she had to give to the police. "So you said that Kasei saved you?"

Fumikage nodded, "There was a point that we were caught in the open with several fire villains, one of them had launched what I could only describe as a great ball of fire...And I will not lie to you Uraraka...I honestly thought I was going to die right then and there, until Kasei appeared; ate the fireball and spat it back at the villains. Only to then buy us time to make our escape while he fought them off alone."

"I didn't know...I guess I owe him a thanks as well not just for Eri, but saving all of you too." Ochako answered.

"Indeed, I would have stopped by his room as well, but I was informed that only family could see him for the time being." Fumikage said with a slightly disappointed look on his face. "Now if you would please excuse me Uraraka, I need to get going...oh and before I forget." Fumikage added as he turned away from Ochako. "Please inform Midoriya, that I will not be treating him any differently from before I learned the truth. He is my classmate, teammate and my class representative if he so wishes to remain in that position."

Ochako smiled and said with a nod. "I'll be sure to tell him."

And with that Fumikage left Ochako alone in the lobby. Ochako quickly took a quick glance of the directory and found where he was staying. She made her way into the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor. Her heart began to beat to as she got ever closer to her right hand was in the pocket that contained her medal...finally she decided to pulled it out and loop it around her neck, wearing Draco Knight's emblem right over her heart.

"Courage Ochako...you're just visting a friend." She said to herself as she fidgeted with the medallion in her hands. The elevator dinged and the doors began to open. As Ochako stepped out into the hallway, she could see the signs that would guide her to Izuku's room.

_'Why do I feel so on edge? Maybe because of my dream?'_ Ochako thought to herself, she had a repeat of her favorite dream last night, only this one seemed far more real...and somehow Izuku had appeared in the boy's place. _'Come on Ochako! Get it together! As nice as that would be...it just doesn't seem real...it would some like a fairytale.'_

"Chako!" A voice familiar voice squeaked, making Ochako turn to see Eri running up to her.

"Eri!" Ochako said happily as she scooped up the little girl in her arms, relief spreading that she was already up and moving around.

"I've missed you." Eri whispered in her ear, making Ochako nuzzle her cheek.

"I did too Eri."

"Eri where did yo- oh..." Inko said as she exited from a room that was a few doors down in the opposite side of the aisle. The two looked at each other for a moment, both having been caught off guard that they would see each other like this, what made Ochako nervous however was Inko's eyes growing wide.

"Mrs. Midoriya?" Ochako called out, instead of answering however, Inko proceeded to start walking up to her instead with a look of disbelief in her eyes. Eri looked at the two with some worry until, Inko was right in front of them looking at Ochako's chest or more accurately the medal that hung around Ochako's neck.

"Is...that?" Inko began to say, as Ochako showed her the medal. Just like Katsuki, Inko held the object in her hand as she began to look at the medallion.

"I've been a Draco Knight fangirl since I was little." Ochako said quietly with a touch of blush on her face.

The days she and Hisashi had spent, designing and redesigning. Making the models do extra silly poses with the medals, designing some joke medals during the prototype phase for laughs. The day they gave Izuku and Katsuki their medals and finally the look on Hisashi's face when the fan club began to award the medals, it all hit her back in an instant. She didn't know when the tears had started flowing, but Inko couldn't stop them once they started, instead she simply hugged the brunette.

"Thank you," Inko said happily, "thank you so much."

Eri looked worried as she didn't like seeing people cry. "Inko please don't be sad." She pleaded to her guardian.

"I'm not sad Eri." Inko answered with a sniff. "I'm so happy right now."

She wasn't lying years of seeing the man she loved repeatedly slandered and disgraced, after everything he had been through in his childhood. Only to discover that he still had fans...fans who remembered him and still loved him enough to keep something like this. She knew Hisashi would have been over the moon to have met one of the contest winners, no matter what rank they held.

"Izuku is in his room. He's been feeling better since the press conference...honestly all of us are feeling better after watching it." Inko started up again as she managed to wipe the tears from her face, while still holding on to the two girls. "The doctor just cleared Eri and Izuku to be discharged once they get one last check-up, so I was actually about to call Ryuko to see if she could give us a lift home, since it will still be awhile before she ends her shift to come over, but I'm sure Izuku will be more than happy to see you, now more than ever."

Ochako smiled as Inko let go of her and tried to take Eri off of her hands, but Eri resisted.

"I want to stay with Chako." She pleaded much to the surprise of both the ladies.

"We still need to do your last check-up with the doctor," Inko said worried that Eri might not want to leave Ochako alone.

"Don't worry Eri...I'm not going anywhere...I'm just going to see Izuku and I'll come back to see you okay?" Ochako said to try and ease the child's worries.

"And she'll be more then welcomed to spend the night at home Eri." Inko added, making Eri much more relaxed, knowing that Ochako would be going home with them.

"Are you sure that okay Mrs. Midoriya?"

Inko smiled at the girl as she took Eri from her arms without protest this time.

"More than sure...also Uraraka...just call me Inko."

"Ooh! Umm! Then please just call me Ochako." Ochako responded surprised by Inko's request.

"You know where Izuku's room is right?"

"Yeah..Bakugou told me, when I stopped by your apartment earlier."

"Katsuki didn't give you any trouble did he?" Inko asked a bit nervously. Ochako paused for a moment before answering.

"Bakugou was just Bakugou...so only the normal amount of trouble."

Inko had to cover her mouth with her hand to stifle down the giggle from Ochako's answer.

"Well then, you should have no trouble with Mitsuki then...see you soon Ochako." Inko finished before heading back to Eri's hospital room. Eri simply waved, with Ochako doing the same before continuing her walk to Izuku's room; now refilled with confidence.

Once she was in front of room 367, she gently knocked on the door.

"I think that could be your mom, Izu." She heard Mitsuki say, has a smile grew on Ochako's face. It was time for a tiny bit of revenge. The door opened revealing Mitsuki looking at a smiling Ochako wearing the medal as clear as day.

"Hello Mrs. Bakugou, I would like that apology now please," Ochako said innocently and yet with the tiniest hint of sass in her voice.

"Auntie Miki who's at the door?"

She heard Izuku ask, making her so happy to hear him.

"Just a good friend who's come by to visit Izu, just give me one quick second with her." Mitsuki answered back.

"Wait...wh-"

Mitsuki slipped out and closed the door behind her cutting Izuku off, and stepped into the hallway with Ochako. Ochako didn't say a word only keeping that same closed eyed smile, having been jerked around by Mitsuki she really just wanted to savor the moment.

"I'm sorry Uraraka," Mitsuki said honestly relieved to be wrong side for once.

"Apology accepted," Ochako chirped, she wasn't one for holding grudges, but she really needed to hear that today. What she didn't expect was the grin that formed on Mitsuki's face.

"I'll give you two some alone time, besides I need Katsuki and Yuu to head back home now that I'm sure that we've past the biggest hurdle. Just be sure to keep it PG-13 okay?"

"W-w-wwait what?" Ochako said with a heavy blush growing on her face. Mitsuki however started walking away; getting the last laugh while pulling out her cellphone.

"Buh-bye!"

_'The Bakugous are all crazy aren't they?'_ Ochako thought to herself as she turned to face the door.

* * *

Izuku was surprised when Mitsuki stepped saying a good friend had stopped by, his first thought had been Katsuki, but when he heard Mitsuki, say _"Her"_ Izuku felt his heart almost stop, even blushing when he had remembered his re-imagined dream with that girl from ten years ago...only with Ochako in place of the girl.

Could it have really been Ochako at the door? She's the only good friend he has really made recently. Given how much time they have been spending together both on and off school. And if it was her, then could this mean that she wasn't mad at him for keeping the truth about his family a secret?

Before Izuku could continue his train of thought he heard the door knock twice before opening slightly, Izuku didn't know if he should have smiled when he saw that familiar brown hair and eyes that peered from the crack of open door. The two teens looked at each for a moment. Neither unsure how to begin their conversation given everything that happened in the past twenty-four hours or so.

"Can I come in?" He heard Ochako ask gently.

"Su-su-sure," He managed to answer her. Ochako quietly slipped in the room closing the door behind her, however she remained by the door. She wanted Izuku to be as comfortable as possible since he was still a patient at this hospital and she was still only a visitor. The two remained silent for what seemed like hours, despite it only being a few minutes at best.

"Would you like a seat Uraraka?" Izuku offered her after a moment, realizing that it was rude to just keep her standing her after she came all this way to see him. Ochako looked a bit shocked and disappointed before making her way to the seat next to his bedside.

"Yeah that would be good...thank you."

Ochako couldn't help but notice that Izuku wouldn't turn to face her, he simply sat there trembling as though he was trying to find the right words to say. She wanted to say something as well...but when he used her last name, instead of her first, she was worried that she might have done something wrong.

Finally Izuku managed to breathe out what he had been holding in and Ochako realized why he had done it.

"I'm sorry Uraraka. I'm so sorry for lying this whole time to you...for keeping the truth hidden from you...I was just scar-"

Izuku wasn't given the chance to finish, as Ochako simply decided to bite the bullet and simply proceed to give Izuku a much needed hug.

"Why-"

"You don't have anything to apologize for," Ochako answered him, as his arms remained at length as if he unsure if it was okay to wrap his arms around her.

"But I lied...I became friends with you...while keeping you in the dark."

"I was a stranger first before you met me...You wouldn't just spill all your secrets to a stranger silly."

"I swear...I was planning on tell you after the USJ...before everything went haywire."

"If it makes you feel better...I kind of found out on my own."

"What?" Izuku said in surprise.

"Mhm, at the battle trial, I saw your scales and decided to do some research and well...I found this old photo of the Drake's Den staff and put two and two together ya know? I didn't say anything, because I wanted you to trust me enough to tell me on your own...and given how the media has been toward you...I can't blame you. _No_ I won't blame you."

"Uraraka..."

_"Ochako."_

"Huh?"

"I guess, it's fair now right? I've been keeping a secret of my own and I never asked you...but is it okay if I can keep calling you Izuku...and you can keep calling me Ochako?"

"Are you sure?"

"You were doing it before just fine silly."

"O-oh..yeah right...I'm sorry."

Ochako giggled. "Stop it with the apologies Izuku, you're fine."

Izuku felt a smile growing on his face as his arms began wrapping around the girl.

_'She so warm.'_

"Guess it's time I told you my secret then Izuku."

"What is it?"

Ochako broke off the hug and showed him the medal she was wearing. Izuku didn't realize that she had been wearing that the whole time, nor did she expect to take it off and looped it around his neck.

"I've been a huge fan of your dad for ages...Funny enough that you've never went in my bedroom when you came over my apartment...its filled with Draco Knight merch including this and after you saved us from that big guy at the USJ...I can't think of anyone else who should wear it right now."

Ochako was quickly reminded that Izuku was as much as Inko's son, as he was Draco Knight's as the boy simply proceed to cry as he realized what he was wearing. What she didn't know yet was, what had happened to the Grandmaster's Cross Izuku once had, nor did she expect to get a hug now in return.

"Thank you," Izuku said tearfully as he cried happily on her shoulder. Ochako simply wrapped her arms around him once again. The two simply sat there together ready to welcome all of the new challenges that would come their way.

* * *

**Author's Commentary **

*The Kübler-Ross model of grief. _**Denial, Anger, Barginning, Depression, Acceptence.**_

Also known as DABDA, introduced by the Swiss-American Elisabeth Kübler-Ross psychiatrist in her book: _**On Death and Dying**. _While far from a universal standard for the way people grieve the loss or in the case of terminally ill patients. Accepting their fate as they wait for their end.

I personally found the model interesting from a storytelling perspective.

Anyone who had ever seen, Game Theory by Matpat on Youtube. One of my favorite video games of all time, _**The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask**_ was looked through the lens of using the Kübler-Ross model of grief and while I ultimately disagree with the conclusion of that episode, I still found the concept very fascinating.

This was a difficult chapter for me to write, as I'm not the biggest fan of angst, but at the very least I'm looking forward to the more fluffy chapters to come.

Now...I can also feel the Izuocha shippers. **TRUST ME. I KNOW, I AM ONE OF YOU**.  
But I can't have them together just yet, but we're are not far for when this ship will sail...*cough*_**Arc IV***_cough*

But we will get further hints at other ships in the works, and I'm very much looking forward to writing the next few chapters which will be a bit more lighthearted and fluffy.

So look forward to _**Chapter XXVI: Home**_

coming as quick as I can.

As always with lots of love.

_**-X**_


	26. Home

Wow...I guess the last chapter wasn't so good, because I lost a bunch of favorites and follows (around 15? I've regained couple since then), shortly after the release of the chapter. Wish I could have at least gotten a courtesy review to let me know why the chapter sucked, but hey...what else can I do?

Thanks to the fact that I'm on vacation and far more motivated, I'm trying to finish up this arc before my vacation ends. I think have 2-3 chapters left in the arc. I'm still never 100% sure how much I can get across in one chapter depending on what I need for the chapter to accomplish.

For what is it worth, I'm honestly just glad others enjoy my work...even when it is hard to tell, because only a handful of people actually drop reviews to let me know. And for my readers who go out of their way to review almost every chapter when they can a very extra special thanks to you guys. Since feedback is key to help me get better as a writer and is one of the main reasons I started writing this story in the first place.

* * *

**Reviews **

_**SirLightKnight: **_Well Nezu is well known for trolling humans when given the proper chance. Funny enough I foreshadowed Midnight's involvement to this in _**Chapter IV**_. Like I said, this story is planned, I started setting up pieces for a lot things in_** Arc I**_. As for me curtailing Izuku's powers, I mentioned that Izuku would not gain the extra abilities like in canon, but I also wanted to create an in-universe explanation of why. I can write Izuocha for days so those scenes were the easiest for me to write. I think this was the chapter that I wanted to highlight that this is a more confident Ochako who did not grow up poor, but is still Ochako through and through. And come on, I'm nowhere near as bad as the master himself, at least I've set up the plan to get them together earlier than in canon.

_**SmokyGhoul: **_Nope, I was just on vacation like I mentioned in the author's notes in the last chapter, but I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far.

_**ProjectIceman: **_Hahahaha...no I could never be that fucked up, however funny enough this is chapter that does reveal where exactly Izuku's Grandmaster's Cross went too.

_**D3lph0xL0v3r:**_No I'm sure you weren't the only one as a number of people seemed pleased by that moment and it was a long time coming that larger cracks in the Neocon operation began to form. Just a quick reminder that Izuku's bedroom is still a bit bare unlike his canon counterpart, as Izuku refuses to use the extra money for himself that Inko gets for being under All Might's employment.

_**Ooobserver:**_Hahaha! Well as one of the Draco Knight readers, I know that you know quite a bit more about Hisashi's past and how and why this effects the main story line. The same happens in normal politics as well, so it is quite believable to see this happening. Nope! but major fluff is inbound for the next few chapters. And...you say that, but remember what I did in _**Arc II**_...alone...yeah no expect some fun and interesting shake up with every upcoming arc...do not rely on canon to think that the upcoming arc are going to be easy.

_**TheDiamondWolverine: **_Well you know how to make a guy blush, to say that this is your favorite fanfic of all time. Especially given how many fantastic fics out there that I think blow mine right out of the water.

_**InFamousSlyMonkey: **_Maybe? I doubt Mirio will be one to ask..but it is a wait and see for what is going to happen to Alex. And I'm glad to know that people seem to enjoy the OC's I tend to write despite the normal way people tend to view them.

_**Jetstar77: **_Interesting predictions, and yes I did mention in Nemuri's flashbacks that it was her major government mission since she finished school, since Midnight is 1-A's homeroom teacher, I wanted to flesh her character out more to grow into a more responsible teacher. (I love her normal pervy self mind, but I also needed to account her change in dynamic with the class) And...ahahaahah The Phoenix King...ah yes...The Phoenix King. The short answer, No. The Long answer, there is actually quite a bit of information that is already available to learn about The Phoenix King but you'll have to find it to read it. And yes certain eye colors are very important indeed.

_**Lambinator: **_I was going to say that please focus on your studies first. This fic isn't going anywhere, but I am glad that you seemed to be enjoying it; that always makes me very happy to see.

_**Moonstar31548: **_Hisashi's past is every important to several key events and changes to the canon in this story line. I can't comment on Alex's ultimate fate just yet, but we will learn more soon. Katsuki is still young and given his nature it isn't a completely irrational fear. I personally have seen friendships drift when some entered into relationships, of course this is far from a universal truth, but Katsuki does tend to think in extremes, but in time he will come to learn that the two have a very strong bond that isn't easily broken, but it is good for both boys to get out of their comfort zone and become bigger influences like they are in canon. Sadly it isn't even Hisashi's actions that Izuku is getting blamed for in the first place.

* * *

**Recommendation**

Today's chapter recommendation goes to: **Bakugou: Part Time Babysitting** by _**ScourgeTheBoss **_

An exceptional (albeit a tiny bit rough to read at times) and delightful read that stars (Gasp!) Katsuki Bakugou and Camie Utsushimi along with a two of my other favorite ships in the series. I won't spoil the fun, but it is a wonderful read.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc II: The Incident **_

_**Chapter XXVI: Home**_

* * *

**"_The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can as we are and not be questioned."_**

**_-Maya Angelou._**

* * *

Kai looked over some of the reports he had received from Hajime; mostly a collection of statements from students, staff and some semi-cooperative villains, along with information that the final report suppressed from the conference. He would have preferred going over these sooner, but Ryu had been discharged from the hospital and needed assistance getting to his bedroom, thankfully Ryu's physician had informed him that the boy should make a full recovery, but would need to take it easy for the next few days. Ryu had proven to be a complete surprise to him; when he first met him with Hideyoshi and that sleazy lobbyist Kinro. He thought the boy was some kind of psychopath with Hisashi's face; meant to serve as a reminder of his guilt.

Now however he wasn't sure what to believe. He knew now that Ryu wasn't just a mindless drone, if Ryu really did step in and risked his life to save his classmates, when Kai knew Hideyoshi wanted to pin UA for issues of safety and security as a means for his movement to take a more firm control of Heroics in Education, only for Ryu to actively prevent that, why? What did he have to gain?

Nothing except Hideyoshi's wrath if the old man ever found out that Ryu had ruined a perfectly good opportunity to get UA in real hot water.

"Kai honey can I come in?" He heard the voice of his beloved wife at the door of his private office. Instead of answering Kai placed down his papers and went to open the door for her, a warm smile grew on his face when he saw her balancing a large tray of tea and snacks with one hand.

"You could have just said, _yes _dear," Saya said with giggle. "You know I'd have no trouble opening the door."

"And you know I prefer to always being a gentleman for you." The man answered with a knowing wink as he quickly returned to his desk to pull up a chair for her and cleared his desk for the tray. With grace Saya placed the tray on the desk, making a soft _thump _as the tray laden with various snacks that Kai could already see had some items missing already.

"Ryu turns out has a real appetite for spicy foods," Saya commented as Kai had been looking for some of Saya's spicy pork mini buns that was missing from the tray. "Then again he can eat fire so somehow that doesn't surprise me."

"How is he doing?" Kai asked as he settled for a simple rice cracker to go along with his tea, while Saya grabbed a sandwich from the tray.

"Sleeping, I had him take some of the pain medication the doctor prescribed for him right after he finished eating. Poor boy was completely exhausted, unsurprising given what he survived."

Kai however threw a different answer before taking a sip of his tea. "I believe the school nurse helped speed up his recovery shortly before we left the hospital and apparently exhaustion is a very common side effect of the procedure."

"Ah, that could explain it too."

The two enjoyed their snack time with each other in a comfortable silence, when the food was nearly finished. Saya put down her tea cup before stealing a look at her husband; doing her best to gauge his current mood as she looked upon his scarred features.

"Kai...I think it's time that we had a talk."

The man closed his eyes after so many years of being married; he knew that tone that her wife carried in her voice and knew that this conversation was going to happen sooner or later.

"Of course, what is on your mind?" Kai asked as he turned his chair to face his wife, leaning forward on his desk, with his elbows planted and held his hands by his mouth.

"I'm not sure where exactly to begin Kai," Saya began saying. "It's been nearly a year since we brought Ryu home with us, and I didn't question it because I was just so happy to finally have a child in our life like we both always wanted. And he's been nothing but a good polite boy, albeit a bit more aloof than what I would have hoped, but I also imagine that it would be difficult for anyone, let alone a teen nearing adulthood to suddenly change and accept a new family."

As she spoke, Saya pulled out her cell phone from her pocket and brought up some photos on the display; some were enough to make Kai's heart hurt just by looking at them.

"Given that the anniversary of his death next week...I needed to ask...did you have us adopt Ryu...because he looks so much like Hisashi? I mean even his...I mean...I almost thought that I was looking at his ghost the first time I met him; his appearance was just so uncanny."

She continued to flip through some of the pictures of Hisashi including one of him in his UA uniform, before pulling up one of Ryu in his UA uniform. At first glance they could have been mistaken for identical twins or clones. It was only the shape of Ryu's eyes and the lack of freckles on his face was where two differed.

Kai sighed, he didn't know how to answer without lying to her. He looked at the woman he loved; her once rich lavender hair now heavily mixed with gray, her bright brown eyes looking so sad. It bothered him to no end. So did he decided to tell her some partial truths from his own investigation into the matter leaving out what he could.

"I know...but no, I did not have us adopt him because of that. No he came recommended by Representative Anno as a way to raise our profile in our careers as well as fulfilling our dream of finally having a child like we always wanted." Kai then reached for his wife's hand holding it firmly. "And like you I thought the same...like Hisashi had come back from the grave."

"I've heard rumors...about Hisashi had possibly been unfaithful to In-"

"_No,_ Hisashi had his faults...but he would have _never _done that to Inko, that I know for sure." Kai interrupted, "But I also confess that I may have thought the same thing, so I had some of my officers do some digging for me and what they found was that Ryu was the bastard son of a former politician; Takumi Saito."

"Oooh." Saya grimaced, remembering the scandal that destroyed that man's career.

"Indeed, Ryu was bounced around orphanage to orphanage until about six years ago, when he was finally settled in the one that we found him in. Despite his bastard status it would seem like his father had left him with a considerable inheritance and had even set up a scholarship for him to a private boarding school were he attended until he finished up middle school last year."

"And his...surname?" Saya asked very curious about this particular tidbit about her adopted son.

"That...I have no idea where that came from to be honest, but from what I gathered Ryu had picked the name himself."

"I understand wanting to distance himself from his disgraced father...especially how he ended up." Saya shuttered, "Of all the surnames to choose...why didn't go with ours?"

"I imagine it was to avoid certain conflicts of interest; the Neocons and the several schools of education that feature Heroics have harbored haven't had the best relationship with each other, so some biases can be shown towards potential students with familial ties to known public members of the movement."

"Wouldn't that be illegal?" Saya questioned.

"There are loopholes that allow them to skirt that rather delicate issue. It is also one of the reason we're listed as place holder guardians for Ryu rather than have full legal guardianship; that title I believe belongs to one of Anno's aides who doesn't really dabble in politics." Kai answered with a small chuckle of irony when he discovered that the young girl named Eri who was at the USJ had been living with the Midoriyas doing the exact same thing with a Mr. Toshinori Yagi.

Even funnier that the Neocons were spared further humiliation by suppressing Eri's involvement from the USJ, one part due to the investigation into the incident over a month ago at the hideout of _The Eight Precepts of Death_ and the capture of their leader Overhaul. The second part was that having educational facilities with heroics, serving as assessment facilities was an idea that was promoted by the Neocons as way to help mitigate long wait times at medical facilities; with something that technically did not need medical staff involved, which was used to extend an olive branch to hero schools and for Neocons could gain good public relations with hero schools.

_'The old man would had a goddamn heart attack if word of that got out.'_

Saya drained the last of her tea, before continuing. "I guess it kind of helps that Ryu is only a few years younger...than what...our child would have been if he had ever come to term."

Kai bit his lip as he remembered that day. The worst day of his life;the day that Hisashi had betrayed them both without them even realizing it until years later. The day their future had been stolen from them. Saya saw that familiar look on Kai's face; it was the same look he gave when ever Hisashi was ever brought up, so she knew that Hisashi had somehow been involved.

"I kept quiet after your fallout with Hisashi as painful as it was for me,but I knew it was worse for you, but I also know some part of you still loves him Kai. If you couldn't tell me what he did to you...could you at least tell me that? That what ever Hisashi really did to you was really that unforgivable to you? To the point that we couldn't even see Inko or Izuku at the hospital while we had the chance?" She questioned regretting not having the chance to see the two of them. "It was so odd to have them two floors down from us...especially since I haven't seen little Izuku since he was just a little over a year old."

Kai didn't answer her right away he took a another sip of his tea; before deciding to say screw it and get up to go to his personal cabinet which now housed several of his medals, commendations and his personal liquor stock. He needed a drink right now.

After a quick search through his collection he pulled out the sake bottle from six years ago and quickly poured himself a cup that was downed in one gulp. Age had indeed improved its flavor, yet it still held a bitter aftertaste. Kai still couldn't bare to tell her why, _no_ what Hisashi had really done to the both of them all those years ago. Yet maybe she had a point, part of him still held on the past; to the halcyon days, before the betrayal; when he could claim that he was a better man.

As he quickly put away the sake bottle; knowing his wife didn't partake in alcohol. Yet in his rush to get back to her his arm bumped a large thin box that had been propped up against the inside of cabinet wall; making it fall and opening upon impact scattering it contents on the floor. A large black cloth with a large black and gold medallion along with some of the stuffing that kept the items in place.

"Oh Kai!"

"Ah damn it, just give a moment dear,I had forgotten that I had moved this when I rearranged my office a few months back." Kai said as he quickly bent down to grab all of the spilled items and tried to neatly replace everything as it once was, only to notice a thin piece of paper that he swore wasn't in the box when he had inspected the contents after he had purchased it five years ago online.

* * *

**_**To the newly established grandmaster, and my beloved son, Izuku. **_**

**_**As you take this badge of your office, always remember to keep these words in your heart.**_**

**_**Remember that courage is not the absence of fear, but having fear and having the strength to over come it. **_**

** _**There may be days, when you may feel like your heart will falter, when it seems like life with do what it can to challenge you. When it will try to break you in anyway it can, the days when life feels hopeless and feel like you could drown in despair, remember that Dusk may lead to terrifying night, but it will also always bring a bright new Dawn.**_**

**_**You were one of the greatest things to have ever happened to me, and there could be no words to describe, the joy that you brought to my life everyday I spent with you. That even in the days that I felt completely lost, I remembered that I had you and the family I had, in the home I had made. As that always give me the strength to keep on moving. **_**

**_**I love you son.**_**

**_**From your loving father, Hisashi.**_**

* * *

Kai looked at the note and cursed himself. Even in death the man's influence was far reaching, more than what everyone could see with the naked eye.

* * *

"I think these will be some nice ones for him," Mina suggested looking over some of the flower arrangements with Eijirou. The two had been talking with each other almost the whole day yesterday. When Mina suggested that they visit Alex, knowing that Eijirou and herself still felt guilty about their senior's condition. Eijirou jumped at the idea immediately and with a quick call to their teacher, learned his hospital room number, however they also agreed that it would only be right to come with a gift for him, like a simple set of flowers. So they had stopped by a local flower shop that was along the way.

"Yeah they look nice," Eijirou commented looking at the white flowers that Mina had pointed out. He didn't know much about flowers as they weren't considered the most manly of things, but that didn't matter to him right now. It was both the manly and honorable thing to try and get the best out of sheer respect for their fallen senior.

"Do you need any assistance?" An employee asked with a cheery voice, after seeing the two teens had been taking quite some time looking at all sorts of the different arrangements; he decided to step in and help that best he could. He was a tall older gentleman, with a well trimmed beard, kindly dark eyes and simple glasses. He was wearing a brown short-sleeve shirt with an dark green apron and khaki slacks.

"Oh! Umm yes, we could please!" Mina answered the kind man with a smile. "We were looking for flowers to give to our injured upperclassman."

The kindly man nodded, "How kind of you to be so considerate and respectful...hmmm, I see that you've been eyeing the **Gardenias**? A beautiful flower indeed however, while I can see that you wish to give flowers to your injured friend. Do you have particular message you want to convey with your gift?"

The two teens looked at each other with puzzled expressions..

"I mean, we could include a note?" Mina suggested, while Eijirou nodded. The man gave a warm chuckle to the idea.

"Of course you can, but what I meant was the type of flower and even their color can express a particular meanings or even message you want to convey. For example using the **Gardenias,** their meaning can be something akin to _purity _or _secret love _and to one receiving** Gardenias** is way to tell someone that they are lovely."

"Oh! Flowers have meanings!" Mina exclaimed excitedly, she knew that flowers were often used in romance or grief, but didn't know that they could have a greater depth of meaning.

"Hmm...that doesn't sound right for Springfield." Eijirou said to himself thinking hard. "He's more a jokester, a cheerful type of guy."

"Ah, now we're are getting somewhere." The man said at Eijirou's comment, before turning around to grab a few different arrangements for them to choose.

"In that case might I suggest one of these?" He suggested showing them four different sets. "We have a nice set of pink **Hyacinths**; which can mean _playfulness _and a _sporty attitude." _He started with the pink ones, "or some lovely **Delphiniums** which can mean _big-heartedness, fun, lightness _and _levity._" He continued with a large set of violet flowers. "Or maybe with slightly more masculine twist, we have **Daffodils **often said to mean _regard _and _chivalry_ with a dash of _unrequited love._" He said showing a set of yellow flowers.

Eijirou liked the meaning of those ones. Chivalry was always pretty manly;several of his favorite heroes always tried to display sense of chivalry, like Crimson Riot or Fourth Kind, even Draco Knight had been huge on chivalry during his heyday.

"And finally we have the **Gladiolus**," He said showing a different set of soft pink flowers. "These represent _strength of character, faithfulness_ and _honor _as well as a way to signify _remembrance_."

Mina was delighted to learn something new, while Eijirou was just surprised to know that something that seemed so unmanly could actually carry such a powerful meaning that was actually pretty damn manly if you think about it.

"What do you think? I'm sure one of these should be more in line for your friend."

"I like the Hyacinths and Delphiniums," Mina answered looking at the first two sets.

"And I like the Daffodils and the Gladiolus," Eijirou commented looking at the latter two sets.

The two seemed stuck on what to get,before the man gave them one last suggestion.

"How about I make you a special arrangement? I'll take one of each of these flowers and arrange them together? I can even give you a special price on it."

"That actually sounds perfect!" Mina cheered, while Eijirou nodded with a bright smile that both would get have their say for their collective gift.

"Wonderful! Give me one moment to get some of the back stock and make the arrangement for you." The man said with a deep bow as he returned the arrangements to their respective spots. "Feel free to look around for anything else that might catch your eye in the time being, I will not be long."

"That went better than I expected," Eijirou said with a light tone.

"Right? Hey Kiri, mind you wait here a moment? I need to use the restroom, so I'll be right back okay?" Mina said with a casual wink.

"Oh! Sure go ahead, I'll hold down the fort here." Eijirou proclaimed placing a enthusiastic fist to his chest that made Mina giggle before walking to the back end of the shop, once she was sure that she was out of Eijiou's sight, she stopped another employee to make a personal request of her own. She had wanted to do something for him, ever since he came clean to her at the USJ. She had been completely dumbfounded by his confession, that she had inspired him to undergo such a drastic change in less than a year.

Yet it only made her regret what she now viewed as a cowardly action that she hoped would never had to repeat again. She always wanted to be that type of role model for everyone; that a fun bubbly girl like her could still hold her on the hero scene. And yet unbeknownst to her; she had already been a role to Eijirou for nearly a year; it was flattering to say the least.

"Excuse me?" She whispered to the employee who had been fixing up other displays.

"Yes, miss how can I help you?"

"Yeah, I was wondering if you can make special order of the Daffodils and Gladiolus for me to be picked up later?"

The more she had heard of those flowers, the more she thought that they perfectly described her horn buddy, well save for the _unrequited love _bit, but she knew that he needed a pick-me-up, and hoped that she can give these to him after visiting Alex as a way to cheer him up. After all these were clearly the perfect flowers to give to a manly man like Eijirou.

Once Mina was out of sight, Eijirou had followed the man who was making their collective arrangement, stopping right by the doorway so as not to trespass. He had wanted to get Mina a gift as a thank you to all of the help she had given him over the past day and some change. And after learning about those two flowers from earlier, he thought they described his horn buddy perfectly.

"Excuse me sir?" Eijirou called out, seeing the man stick his head out of the corner of the hallway.

"Need anymore help sir?" The man asked.

"I was wondering...if you can make a separate order of the Hy-umm..Hyca-"

"Hyacinths and Dephiniums sir?" The man interrupted with a hidden yet knowing smirk on his face.

"Yeah those ones...and I can pick up those up later?"

"Of course sir."

* * *

"Okay Tensei...make a death save roll." Rei requested from behind her Dungeon Master screen, as the table held their collective breath as they watched Tensei start his roll of the dice.

"Four," Tensei said with bated breath looking at the dice with a pale expression.

"Okay that is a your first strike out of three," Rei explained with a slightly devious smirk on her face. Rei Todoroki turned out to be one hell of a Dungeon Master once she learned to play 12th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Then again Rei loved to tell stories, it helped that she was able to make changes on the fly or throw some fantastic curve balls at the party. A party that consisted of Tenya, Tensei, Shouto, Natsuo, Fuyumi and Mei. _-When she was available-_

While Enji was spending some quality time with Hikari up stairs in her room.

"How did this happen?" Shouto questioned with dreaded look on his face as he looked at the digital map with their character pieces; the story having completely gone off the rails. "We were just asking questions in a kids boarding school, how did go so wrong?"

"Well... Mei thought that blowing up one of the walls with one of her homemade bombs was a good idea," Fuyumi started listing off.

"My baby got the job done! We got inside the school!" Mei interrupted from her side of the table holding up a card that featured the bomb her Machinist's made.

"I was handing the negotiations with the headmaster just fine before Natsuo went undercover and started to swindle children out of their pocket money!" Tenya interjected while accusing their resident rogue.

"Hey some of those kids were loaded! No reason not to make some extra money when I got inside." Natsuo defended trying to stop himself from laughing from all of the chaos unfolding. "Besides it was Fuyumi who set that kid on fire!"

"I didn't realize how big the range of the fireball spell was!" Fuyumi defended her Wizard's actions with a embarrassed look on her face. "I thought it would just scare the kids!"

"And instead you cooked Tensei's Paladin in his armor." Shouto deadpanned, while Rei continued to narrating the scene with vigor and making a stoic face in the mist of their commentary.

"Honestly I'm worried about your actual students now Fuyumi," Natsuo commented with a chuckle, before Fuyumi shot him a nasty look and responded with.

"Says the one, who once tried using Touya and Shouto as makeshift stoves to cook breakfast once upon a time."

Rei stopped narrating, her face going blank for a brief moment, only to completely for it to contort into a fit of laughter as memories of the day she and Fuyumi had caught the trio of brothers in one of Natsuo's "_**Science experiments" **_had come back to her in an instant.

"What?" Tenya exclaimed turning to look at Shouto with disbelief etched on his face, while the boy to slowly began his head turn away from his best friend unable to look at him in the face out of shame.

"You could have just called me, I got some babies that are perfect for making breakfast!" Mei proclaimed as she began flipping through her phone. "It was meant as a way to make breakfast for heroes on the go!"

"THAT EGG AND TOAST CANNON WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA!" Tenya interjected, remembering that disaster of an experiment.

"Not with that attitude Teni."

"Not with any attitude!"

"I'll admit that I got some kinks to work out of it."

"It ended up mostly shooting toast crumbs and piping hot egg whites." Tensei added, remembering that experiment as well. Rei however simply continued to roar with laughter at her family's past and present antics. She wouldn't trade this for anything in the world.

Upstairs Enji sat silently with Hikari while the two simply watched her favorite show in her bedroom. Enji wasn't one for games, and Hikari was more interested in this than playing a game she viewed at too complex. So this was a rare time that granddaughter and grandfather would spend together alone. It was a welcomed change after the near heart attack he almost had when he heard about the USJ incident on the news.

Nezu had called in a meeting for them, and All Might better have a good reason on why he couldn't have been at the USJ, as he personally wasn't satisfied with the answer given during the press conference. Unlike the press; he didn't fear in pushing some buttons to teach the man some humility.

"Grandpa you said that you met Mister Amina right?" Hikari asked with a hopeful look on her face. Enji nodded to her before giving the lass a little more detail she before she could ask.

"Indeed I have, Anima had assisted your father and I, in rescue operations before with the help some of the local animals on the scene."

"Is he really as nice as he is in the show?"

"He is, but the real Anima is a bit more on the shy side."Enji commented as he remembered the large man during a small meeting of local pros.

"But he's on TV all the time; in front of many people!"

Enji looked his granddaughter, he knew that she was both observant and intelligent, a lot like Fuyumi was when she was Hikari's age.

"If or when you ever decide to become a Pro-Hero. One of the first things you learn to do is to create a persona, like the costumes that we wear."

"Persona?" Hikari questioned, "what does that mean?"

Enji couldn't give her the actual dictionary meaning of the word off the top of his head. So instead he answered the best he could.

"My name is Enji Todoroki, but in Japan and around the world, I am the Pro-Hero Endeavor. When I put on my costume and go out to patrol, I need to be Endeavor the Hero, not Enji the man. The same applies to any Hero including Anima, while his real name escapes me at the moment, when he puts on his costume, he is no longer the shy man he normally is; instead he becomes the Pro hero you know and enjoy watching."

"It's hard to understand," Hikari commented with a slightly confused expression on her face. Enji hoisted his granddaughter up and embraced her gently. Seeing an opening to something he wanted to get out of the way for her early; knowing he might not have the time to spare a month from now.

"It can be, but maybe this can help," Enji answered her as he pulled out three golden slips of paper. "You mentioned Anima, but you forget that Comicman is part of the duo, and he happened to owe me a favor. So I know your birthday isn't until next month, but this live show is for next weeken-"

Hikari squealed with delight seeing the tickets for the live show of her favorite TV show as she began hug her grandfather as tightly as she could, making the man breathe out a rare chuckle. He wouldn't be able to attend, but he knew that Tensei and Fuyumi would be able to take her in his instead, as the two had been trying to make more time for their daughter. To him it seemed like the perfect fit.

"Thank you Grandpa!"

"You're welcome my dear."

* * *

Ochako was happy to have a chance to nerd out with Inko as she finally got a chance to know the real Draco Knight that very few actually knew. While Izuku and Eri sat on the couch watching Eri's favorite TV show, Ochako and Inko were at the kitchen table looking over some of the memories of the Drake's Den and even a few more personal pictures; like those of a certain green haired boy's baby pictures that Inko was willing to share on the down low.

"Wow!" Ochako exclaimed as she got see pictures of the office and staff, while Inko regaled happy to share what she could about Hisashi, now that the secret was out in the open, all of Hisashi's old photos had been restored in their proper places around the household much to everyone's joy.

"And this is Daigo Urashima; an old friend of Hisashi's who left the agency, I believe he's working on I-Island right now." Inko explained pointing at the picture of an almost completely bald man with a comb over and large thick coke-bottle glasses who had been on photo celebrating his good-bye party along side Hisashi with a toast. "He was always a bit of an oddball, but also a mad genius."

As the two continued to flip through the photo album, Ochako stumbled on a few very beautiful pictures.

"Are these your wedding photos?"

Inko sighed with a look of longing on her face, "Yes they are, actually there are two sets here." She added turning the page to show another set of wedding photos that only made Ochako confused.

"Did you have a costume wedding Inko?"

"No sweetheart, we actually had two wedding ceremonies." Inko answered as she started pointing out some of the differences. "Hisashi knew that it would be hard to invite every single one of our friends and family. So we had two ceremonies to make-up for everyone who couldn't make it for the first."

"This one," Inko pointed to the photo of her and Hisashi, in a snow white wedding dress while Hisashi wore a ceremonial set of armor with a sliver sash on his waist and chest. "Was a more western style* wedding..._it was also an excuse for Hisashi to wear that armor like the giant nerd he was._" Inko whispered that last part to Ochako, who was struggling not laugh at the playful jab.

"While the second ceremony was a more traditional Japanese wedding, _because Hisashi wanted to please my parents_." Inko added again with a whisper, when she pointed out the photo of the two in traditional Japanese wedding garb.

They were accompanied whom Ochako assumed were the parents of the bride and groom respectively. Inko with her father a dark green haired man and her mother that looked just like her only light pink hair. While Hisashi was with large dark haired man with a few scars on his face with bright dark eyes, and a beautiful woman with rich lavender hair and bright brown eyes. Everyone looked so happy together in the photograph.

"It guess it was fate that you got a name like, Midoriya from your husband huh? Even through your family was the one with green hair." Ochako observed with a slightly joking tone, while Inko looked at her with a slightly puzzled expression before she remembered that Ochako didn't know about Hisashi's surname.

"Ah...actually Hisashi took my last name," Inko answered her making Ochako very surprised indeed. While she knew that it wasn't always the wife who dropped their maiden name and instead the husband would be the one to adopted the wife's name, but she didn't expect Draco Knight had done that.

"Was there a reason why?" Ochako asked curious about these new detail.

Inko nodded with a sad look forming on her face, "Hisashi's childhood...was awful to say the least, he grew up in a rather abusive home to the point that Hisashi ended up living with Ryuko's parents."

"Oh no...I'm so sorry Inko...I didn't mean t-"

"Oh you're fine Ochako...it just never gets easier, given where Hisashi came from; only to end up like he did."

Ochako looked at the photograph again hoping to change the subject. Ochako asked "So are those Ryukyu's parents?"

"No,"Inko answered looking at the photo again. "Those...were old family friends...or at least used to be...but they were the closest people that Hisashi had to a real mother and father."

Ochako was about ask for more details, before the two heard Inko's cellphone begin to ring.

"Oh! Excuse me for a moment Ochako...I think that's All Might." Inko said getting up, "Feel free to keep looking, I'll back in a bit."

"Okay." Ochako answered her before going back to the photos with a slightly dampened mood, sad to know that one of her personal favorite heroes had such a rough childhood. Ochako continued to flip the pages when she came across something she didn't expect; a copy of the Midoriya family registry. What she found really surprised her, as she read Hisashi's original surname.

**Husband: Hisashi Midoriya (né Kasei) **

** Wife: Inko Midoriya **

**Son: Izuku Midoriya. **

* * *

**Author's Commentary **

_*****_**Western Style Weddings** a.k.a. What you can expect a traditional wedding to be here in the states or most of western Europe.

Soooo...fun fact for those who haven't been reading Draco Knight. I revealed Hisashi's original family name in _**Chapter I**_ of that story and with three chapters so far in that story. There are a number more secrets to be found there that won't be revealed in the main story line until much later.

So for some readers who want to read more of this story...but haven't read Draco Knight yet...well...I recommend you give that story a shot.

I'm already hard at work on the next chapter

_**Chapter XVII: The return to UA **_will be out as soon as I can.

As always with lots of love.

_**-X**_


	27. The Return to UA

_**I LIVE! **_

Sorry about that my dear readers! This chapter proved to be a bigger pain in the ass than expected. (One scene had me stuck banging my head against the wall for a week and half before I finally figured out how to work it.) This chapter is also much longer than I originally thought it would be. (My original estimation for this chapter was about 6~7k words...it ended up being nearly 10k. HAHAHA)

Anyway I will not keep you guys waiting long. There is an additional important information in the Author's commentary section you may want to keep an eye out.

I promise to try and get the next chapter out sooner. Also thank you everyone for your kind words in the last chapter, and maybe I should amend my intention. By all means, I do not expect everyone to review every single chapter, (but I do really appreciate the ones that do!) I just wanted to get a point across that, feedback is very important to me in order to hone and improve.

Anyway guys with that being said, please enjoy the chapter.

* * *

**Reviews **

_**RSmallz: **_Again man it is no problem if you can't leave a review every chapter. But the occasional review here and there with some of your general thoughts of the story or chapter is always welcomed. As for the quotes in every chapter, it depends. Some quotes I know by heart, because they meaning something to me personally, other quotes, I look up when I look for a particular theme, that I want either the chapter, a key scene, or a key characters to experience. Quick example would be _**Chapter XXII,**_ The quote of the chapter was, _**"Some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of the soul." **_I will flat out say it here. This was a reference to Ryu's internal conflict of where exactly he stands and the issues he would have to deal with then and in the future.

_**HunterQwon: **_Thank you, it helps, and hey I recovered my numbers and then some so hey sliver lining right?

_**HankFlamion18: **_All I can say that it isn't the only letter that is out there. Waiting to be read for the person it is intended for written by the same hand. I hope to keep it up.

_**ProjectIceman: **_Maybe? Keep reading to find out, honestly it doesn't matter for what reason people drop the story. Not everyone is going to like my story for a number of reasons and they're all equally valid to the individual. I just wish I got feedback on why they dropped it. Was it for something I did in the story or another factor I'm not seeing ya know?

**_Patrickthenobleman: _**Writing for the happier Todoroki/Iida family gives me life. It's just one of those things I've only seen a few people do. Including one of the stories that helped inspire me to write this, and...Tensei...all I can say is spoilers. And yes some ships are more obvious than others, but I know that some people are in for a surprise when it comes to certain ships planned out.

_**Hypernova: **_Hey I'm just happy that people read my stuff and for the most part like it. Take your time reading it, this story isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

_**JCHudson: **_All I say is that answers are already out there and with a pretty reasonable explanation. Why is Izuku's Grandcross in Kai's hands? I mean again there are reasons and that same chapter gave some additional clues as for why he did, no matter what; direct answers will come in due time. DM in Dungeons and Dragons stands for "Dungeon Master" who is basically the game's admin or god. The one who holds the fate of the players in their very hands!

_**Sketchtheunicorn:**_ And that is completely alright, I don't expect everyone to review every chapter, but I am very happy to hear that you're enjoying the story so far.

_**D3lph0xL0v3r: **_Yes indeed. Now it time to find the connection...assuming there is one and just I'm screwing with all of you.

_**Ooobserver: **_Who knows? Well I mean I do, but remember that Ochako has a lot on her plate with more being added, so who know how long it will take to address it?

_**Moonstar31548: **_If you re-read that chapter, you may have gotten a hint of why Kai has it. So instead I will ask a question of my own. Why would Saya Doumeki, Kai Doumeki's wife, have a photo of Hisashi as a teenager and in his UA uniform? Just some food for thought if you re-read that chapter, the answer is there. More fun to come hahaha.

* * *

**Recommendation!**

_**All My Friends Are,And Other Such Stories**_ by my friend, **Dr_J33** who wrote this a while ago, but I really enjoyed this rare pair. (Maybe it could be featured here?)

I'll just leave the summary here and see what you guys think.

_Hanta Sero never imagined he'd be where he was. He got into the UA Hero course despite having a quirk that was literally just tape, made a bunch of friends, and was slowly making a name for himself. Initially his free time would be spent with his group of friends, his "squad" per say. However things changed around the start of his second year. _

_When they all got into relationships_ _Sero feels left out and has a run in with an unexpected new companion._

Ships include, Izuocha, Kamijirou, Kirimina, Bakucamie and a ship for Hanta Sero that Dr_J33 really made feel solid. Who is this mystery girl? Well read it to find out! (It's not an OC) I believe this is an AO3 exclusive. Please do check it out!

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc II: The Incident**_

_**Chapter XXVII: The Return to UA**_

* * *

"_**The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing." **_

– _**Theodore Roosevelt**_

* * *

"Oh my gosh!" Ochako whispered excitedly as she snapped a quick picture of the sight.

"I know! I couldn't believe it either!" Izuku whispered back with a smile. The two teens were dressed and ready to return back UA their first day after the USJ incident, just before leaving to go to school, the two had plans to wake up Eri to get her ready for breakfast as well as reminding her that they would meet-up with her at the hospital to finish her assessment. However upon entering Izuku's bedroom, they were met with a sight they hadn't even before. Eri was smiling in her sleep, much to the amazement of the two teens. Izuku had tried all sorts of games, and activities to try and make Eri smile but nothing had ever worked. Yet here she was deep asleep, yet her face contained the most beautiful smile either had ever seen.

"Mom had mentioned to it to me before." Izuku admitted, "back at the hospital...but to see it for myself."

"Now we just got to learn how to make her smile when she's awake." Ochako added.

"Yep..." Izuku said before sighing.

"You don't want to wake her huh?"

Izuku nodded, Eri was clearly happy in her dreams and the last thing he wanted to was interrupt it. He wanted Eri to keep being happy, to let her keep that smile for as long as she could.

"She doesn't have to wake up until later Izuku. Let's just let your mom know that Eri wanted to sleep for a tiny bit-longer." Ochako suggested before putting away her phone and fixing up Eri's blanket; planting a light kiss on the girl's horn when she was done. Ochako got up and left Izuku do the same.

"See you after school Eri." Izuku whispered as he brushed aside some intruding hairs off of Eri's face, with their goodbyes spoken, the two silently walked out the room and slowly closed the door. If they had only stayed there for a few more moments they would heard a hint of what Eri dreamed that made her so happy.

"Mama...papa..." She breathed softly as she shifted slightly in her bed.

* * *

"They plan to announce it later today."

The UA staff sat in near silence as they discussed the decision that had come down yesterday morning. The Help Us Company along aside the heroic licensing body had informed Nezu yesterday morning that a decision had been made in light of the final report.

"Have we contacted his family Nezu?" Midnight asked in disbelief. Nezu nodded gravely having been the one to make the call.

"She was completely inconsolable at the news."

"They couldn't get UA and they couldn't get Midoriya, so they went after the one guy who is already down." Powerloader commented flatly with folded arms.

"Nezu isn't there anything we could do about this?" Midnight asked still trying to wrap her head around what she saw a cruel joke.

"It is out of our hands, all we would be able to do is testify in his defense if he called for an appeal himself." Nezu answered with a frown.

"But his condition..."

"Currently is not expected to improve." Vlad King noted as he felt a twitch of pain run down his missing arm.

"Which means he can't appeal."

"Even if he did, due to the massive queue of other foreign-born pro-heroes who are still fighting their own suspensions, it could now possibly take over a year for his case to be brought in for review." Eraserhead injected in a muffled voice. "And he cannot graduate from UA without his license."

"Which means he'll either be held back or be forced to drop-out...most likely the latter than the former due to spacing concerns and the second year liaisons to consider."

"But his suspension wasn't even due to a disciplinary action! It was due to the new guidelines for foreign-born heroes and hero course students to take an updated language examination!"

"The more nationalistic branch of the Neocons, Representative Kimura especially has been on a crusade against foreign-born heroes since he got elected into office to him, a suspension is a suspension regardless of the circumstances."

"I suppose we should count our blessings that they didn't try to charge him with murder or manslaughter." Thirteen added having completely healed from her injuries.

"No. That would have been too far, even for them." Nezu spoke up. "The report used to condemn him, could easily work in his favor as it proves that he used lethal force in both self-defense and for the defense of his juniors. Not to mention if he won the case, they would have to reverse the decision about his license immediately. "

"So they pin him with excessive force on board rather than charge him with crime where he would stand a better chance eh?" Snipe commented. "That's the way they want to circumnavigate the law and make it harder for him. Don't charge the boy, just kick him while he already down with no way to fight back."

All Might remained silent, the whole situation reminding him of the Draco Knight fiasco that he was still in the middle of trying to work out. Now a student who was supposed to be under his care was being thrown to the wolves, thankfully he had an idea that could might be able to correct this situation. He would not let injustice stand again.

"I'd hate to see how social media is going to handle this when the news breaks out, I mean he is surprising popular in the States and even has a small following here due to his work on _Animal Buddies_." Present Mic commented with a sigh while looking at his phone; it wasn't often he gets to teach English to someone fluent in the language.

"We will simply have to continue as planned, I will personally handle any additional issues with this, along with Hound dog and Eraserhead." Nezu finished up as he decided to end the morning staff meeting as he checked the time. As the staff began to grab their things and walk out, only Eraserhead and All Might remained seated. When they were alone Nezu said once last thing.

"We are proceeding as planned, this will be a small set-back for him, but his career isn't done yet. Not by a long shot."

* * *

Midnight knew that homeroom today could have been a little awkward, as she could still feel some of the tension still in the air. The nightmare that was the USJ and the revelations afterward were still fresh in the minds of everyone in some way shape or form. She decided to quickly take roll; noting that Ryu Kasei was still on medical leave until Wednesday as ordered by his physician. When she finished up she took a good solid look at her class and began to speak.

"Before I go over the general announcements. I first want to say that, I'm very proud of all of you." All of the class began to look at their teacher; many with a look of surprise on their faces. "Despite the odds, several of you managed to accomplish something that very few first years ever had in less than two weeks. Some of you, like Mr. Tokoyami despite your weakness to light and fire, lead and protected several of your fellow first years and even shielded them at great personal risk."

The class began to clap for the dark teen, who tried to make himself stoic in the face of the praise he was receiving. Dark Shadow however projected itself from its host and began to revel in the glory that it wanted.

**"That's right I'm awesome."** It proclaimed, while Fumikage growled out.

"Begone!"

**"Awww you're no fun Fumi."** It responded before going back to its host, getting a couple of laughs from a few others in the class.

"Ms. Sekigai despite ending up with complete strangers, your quick thinking and cooperation managed to lead your makeshift team relatively unharmed."

"It wasn't a flawless plan...Mizuoji still got hurt," Kashiko answered the praise with a bashful humility.

"Mr. Bakugou your skills in both combat and leadership shone at the USJ and despite some reckless moves, you without a doubt helped turn the tables around when things had turned dire."

Katsuki who hadn't been in the greatest of mood given everything that happened had to admit to himself that the praise was quite welcomed. "The villains were nothing!"

"You know we had to pull your butt from the fire when things got too hot there Bakugou." Hanta responded flatly pointing to himself and Minoru. "Hell Mineta actually managed to slow down the giant guy during that last big fight!"

"Reckless as it was," Midnight added in a neutral tone, as much as she wanted to praise the little man's bravery in the Overhaul fight, his actions could have gotten him killed in an instant if it wasn't for Ibarra's actions. While Katsuki clicked his tongue in annoyance to Hanta's comments.

"Ms. Yaoyorozu, the team you lead up in the Mountain Zone; despite a few gambles, the teamwork you showed that day with those in class B, along with Kaminari, Jirou and Uraraka, was nothing short of brilliant."

"Hey I just did my normal thing of zapping bad guys." Denki responded leaning back on his seat casually.

"And derpping out, when done." Kyouka jabbed playfully.

"Hey!"

"I'm just glad that we made it out safe." Momo answered with a sigh. Ochako didn't comment as she was just glad that they had managed to save Eri from that monster that hid himself under the guise of a man.

"Todoroki who acted fast to protect everyone during the final battle and Iida who managed to alert the main campus and brought reinforcements."

The mood seemed to be getting lighter, but Midnight knew that she still had to tackle one of the hardest topics. "Mr. Midoriya, as your teacher, I like to thank you in your role in holding off Overhaul."

Izuku froze as the attention finally came to him, he knew that he would have to address this now. Izuku slowly raised his hand and asked.

"Ms. Kayama can I please come to the stand?"

Midnight looked at her student, it was time for all of them to rip-off the band-aid.

"You may," she answered as she stepped aside for Izuku to come before the class. Ochako looked at Izuku with concern, she knew what he was planning and while she didn't agree with him. It was ultimately Izuku's choice to make.

"H-hello everyone i-i-it is good t-to see all of you are doing well." Izuku began with a slight stutter that improved as he continued. "I'm sure all of you know the truth about me now, from both the USJ and the final report. First I want to say that I'm sorry for hiding it."

Many in the class stayed silent, some had looks of understanding, others seemed be tense as Izuku continued to speak.

"I hid it, because of previous experiences with people who had discovered the truth about me, had lead to me to being cautious...maybe far more cautious than I needed to be, but no matter the reason. The truth is that I didn't trust anyone with the truth of my background with the exception of Kacchan who knew me since we were kids." Izuku said while motioning to his best friend. "And that brings me to my second point, I failed to trust in you all and kept this important aspect of me hidden. I basically got elected without being truthful and therefore I hereby resign as your class representative."

Most of the class went into an uproar about Izuku's announcement.

"What the fuck?!"

"Wait Midoriya are you sure that you want to do that?"

"Dude come on given what the media was saying about you...I kind of get why you hid it."

"Wait Midoriya aren't you jumping the gun here?"

"I wasn't finished." Izuku continued making everyone go silent. "It isn't the only reason I want to resign from being your class president. After some serious self-reflection, I can honestly say that I'm not ready to be in a leadership role just yet." Izuku looked down as his thoughts turned to his frustrations when he was in the Conflagration Zone, when he had prioritized Eri without consideration for others. To the point that he began crushing Ryu's arms while carrying him, hell Tooru had scolded him for that. "There are things I want...no..._I need_ to work on, in order to be the best president I could be for all of you. But right now with everything that is going on in my life, I need to re-prioritize. Next year when elections come again, I may or may not be ready, but I think I'll at least be in a better mindset to serve the position if elected again. It's a matter of integrity for me to do this."

Finally Izuku looked up to his classmates with an awkward smile. "Lasty I feel the need to reintroduce myself. My name is Izuku Midoriya, son of the late Pro-hero Draco Knight and hope that we can continue forward in our path to become Pro-heroes."

Midnight couldn't help but smile at the sight. Izuku had come to accept there was no way to hide his past any longer, all he could do now is take his father's legacy in stride and work with it from here on in. She was glad that Izuku showed this sign of maturity, as Midnight took a look at the class once again. She could still see concern on some faces, but the tension was felt significantly more relaxed.

"Thank you Ms. Kayama." Izuku said with a bow to his teacher before returning to his seat. The class remained silent as Midnight retook her spot in front of the class.

"Well that was a treat," Midnight whispered to herself before continuing the days announcements. "Well in addition to the general announcements, in accordance with standard practice Ms. Yaoyorozu is now your class representative, unless you have any objections Yaoyorozu?"

The class turned their collective attention to Momo who was quickly caught off guard by her sudden promotion, she quickly rose up and bowed. "No Ms. Kayama,I humbly accept the post of class representative, I hope to live up to everyone's expectations."

The class gave Momo a hearty clap before she settled back down to her seat.

"In this unique case, I'll make an impromptu decision and request that you select your own vice-representative by the end of the week, in such a case that you do not choose one, we'll hold an quick election as Mr. Kasei should be back with us to have the whole class available to vote Yaoyorozu." Midnight added before she began to shuffle some of the paperwork on the podium for the day's announcements.

Instantly a number of heads with desires for position turned to a nervous looking Momo, who couldn't help but feel just a bit uncomfortable with that kind of power so soon.

"Maybe it would be best to wait until Kasei returns to have a fair vote and candidacy if he so wished." Momo responded nervously hoping to quell down the intense stares she was getting; mainly from Tenya and Kashiko.

"Nah, Kasei hates that type of work!" Denki injected with a laugh, "He dropped out during the first election remember? I really doubt that he'd want the job now."

* * *

Meanwhile in the Doumeki household, the fire alarm was blaring loudly as Saya tried to find the house's emergency kit to combat a small fire that Ryu accidentally caused on the kitchen when he began sneezing up a storm after taking a bite out his breakfast.

"GAK!AH-CHOO! GAH!" Ryu continued to choke out by the kitchen table, desperately trying to grab a EQ Pen kitchen medicine cabinet, while covering his mouth with his left hand.

"OH DEAR! ARE YOU ALLERGIC TO SOMETHING I MADE?! JUST HOLD ON A MOMENT!" Saya could be heard asking in the distance in a panicked voice, while Ryu continued sneezing while trying to uncap a spare EQ pen he found to use on himself.

In the singular moment that he was free from the sneezing fit, he managed to bite the cap off and with one fluid motion stabbed himself in the leg, Ryu held in his breath doing his best not to sneeze again for a few more seconds as the medication began to kick in and his quirk would to be suppressed for the next hour.

"AH-CHOO!" Ryu hacked out a dry sneeze, relieved that no more fire shot out of his mouth. He managed to breathe in deep, feeling light-headed from the lack of air.

"I FOUND IT!"

_CRASH _

Unfortunately for Ryu, in Saya's rush to put out the small fire, she had rushed through the kitchen door so fast, she had forgotten to be wary about her passive super-strength which sent the door flying off its hinges and headed towards the boy.

Ryu who only had mere nanoseconds to process the large door coming his way; shrieked while managing to narrowly dodge the flying door by leaping behind the table that was still on fire. As he rose up to try and assess the damage of the door that was now embedded into the wall and cabinets, before he was blasted with a face full of the flame retardant foam that Saya had begun blasting haphazardly all over the place.

"There! Problem solved!" Saya proclaimed as she tossed the now empty extinguisher to the side when the fire was completely snuffed out; only to realize that she had completely destroyed the kitchen. Ryu simply stood there in complete disbelief; covered head to toe in the front of body with the stuff, breakfast was ruined and he was getting cold from the foam. He continued to cough and spit out the foam that kept getting in front of his mouth as he tried to wipe it off. At least he was no longer sneezing.

Saya coughed awkwardly before asking. "Sooo...how about we go out for bunch instead?"

* * *

"Yeah Kasei wouldn't care," Minoru added as Momo tried to find another excuse for delaying the selection as she simply did not want to offend anyone who would be more than worthy for it.

"Again you have until Friday Yaoyorozu." Midnight said with an air of finality. "Now on to the rest of the day's announcements. First: remember that all of you will have a scheduled appointment with Hound Dog for counseling throughout the week, the first one is mandatory and I please encourage all of you to be as cooperative as possible. I will hand out a special schedule sheet for all of you, of when your scheduled appointment will be, further details will be handled by Hound Dog himself."

Midnight began walking around the seating distributing the papers to her students, as she continued the next announcement. "Second, I am pleased to announce that the UA Sports festival is set to begin next month."

The whole class remained silent before erupting into a mix of cheers and excitement.

"HELL YEAH, I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THE FESTIVAL!"

"Damn that soon? I forgot just how early they host every festival."

"Last year's was great!"

"Our time to shine!"

"Umm...I hate to be the one to say this...but should UA even host the festival after the villain attack?" Kyouka asked with a raised hand.

"That's right...we're a lot easier to attack if we are all bunched up together." Mashiraou added with concern clear in his voice.

"This is UA's way of saying that we are confident that the threat to us is over. And if you saw the press conference earlier Principal Nezu has already set-up arrangement with several pros and police to provide extra security for the event." Midnight answered carefully as not to sound dismissively of her student's concerns. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Ochako had many things on her mind as they sat to eat lunch, Izuku had been invited to eat with All Might, much to the stares of everyone else in the cafeteria. Between everything she learned during the break, she needed some time to collect herself. It had been a strange few months, hell four months prior she had been hyper focused on passing the UA exams, and maybe possibility finding her old knight on a whim.

Now she was friends with the son of her favorite hero and getting to know so much about him; along with practically being a mother to a young girl whom she had easily come to love and adore. And finally being a student at the most famous Hero school in country, if not the whole world.

Yet, in coming here she could now feel like there was something else that was going on, she had learned the truth about so many things, yet she felt like there was so much more going on. Izuku was far more honest and open about a number of things, but still kept quiet when it came to All Might.

Then there was Hisashi and Ryu, she didn't think much of the dark haired teen before; except maybe some annoyance that was mostly due to him and Katsuki often ending up bickering with each other during class. Now after the bombshell of Hisashi's original surname, she couldn't help but notice now just how much the two looked so much alike from the photos. Where they related somehow? Given that Izuku or Katsuki didn't seemed to know him nor did Ryu make any efforts to know them...could it really just be a coincidence?

"You know Uraraka...I get enough of the mumbling from Izuku. Don't tell me that you picked up his habit too." She heard Katsuki say with a flat voice across from her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"What!? No! I did not just do that!" Ochako quickly defended herself, her face turning bright red. Making Tenya chuckle to himself, while Shouto had a slight smirk on his face.

"She just worried about her dear husband!" Mina teased as she and Eijirou had ended up joining their table.

"Come on Ashido, it's only been a few minutes since Midoriya left. I'm pretty sure that she had other things on her mind." Eijirou interjected trying to spare Ochako from Mina's teasing.

Ochako ignored the 'husband' comment and decided to come clean with some of her thoughts. "I was just thinking about how my life has changed since I got here." She admitted, "it's been a real kicker; to the point that I even changed the reason I wanted to be a hero."

"Really? That's rather interesting." Tenya commented curious about what Ochako meant. "What was the original reason and what made you change it?"

Ochako went red, she never really told the story about her childhood to anyone, only people who knew, were her folks and a few of the neighbors who got told the story during tea, when she was a little kid. Them and her friend Suzaku. Everyone else at the table; except for Katsuki who simply continued eating, looked at Ochako with the same curiosity.

"Well...this is kind of silly, but when I was a little girl, I visited Musutafu when my parents came here on a business trip. My mom took me to one of the local parks to you know...get some fresh air and play with some of the other kids." Ochako began saying. "Anyway I remember that one of the kids I was playing with had told me about some kind of special treasure that was in the woods of the park."

Katsuki stopped eating while keeping his face downward.

**_**Why does this sound familiar to him?**_**

"Soo...I had only turned five sooo...I didn't think too much about it ya know? I always had a love of fantasy and when I thought about a lost treasure in the woods...It sounded like a good adventure. So I decided to try my luck and find it...only no one else wanted to go so I went alone."

"By yourself?! That could have been really dangerous!" Tenya commented as he quickly pictured Hikari doing the same and made his protective side flare up.

"Let me guess...you got lost." Shouto guessed correctly, making Ochako blush harder.

"Yep...I got lost and ended up in a small river bed."

Katsuki was slowly piecing things together. Putting the pieces that he couldn't believe were starting to fit. _**'No...'**_

"Wait how did you end up in a river bed?" Eijirou asked confused.

"If I remember correctly the park I went to was connected to a small forest with a small river that passes by it. Nearby are these well...they were giant to me, but they were these super large bushes and because I was still a little girl, they blocked the view of the river and I ended up moving too fast and fell into it. I really messed up my leg in fall."

"Ouch! How did you get out?" Mina asked especially how this was how Ochako originally wanted to become a Pro. "Was a Pro-hero nearby to save you?"

Ochako smiled as she got to her favorite part. "Well...it wasn't a pro-hero, but he definitely was my hero that day. It was ten years ago and I can't remember anything about him, but there was this boy."

**'No...fucking...way.' **Katsuki thought in complete denial of what he was hearing. _**'THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY THIS IS REAL...FUCK YOU, YUU! WHAT KIND OF FANFIC BULLSHIT IS THIS?!' **_

"And well to make a long story short, he helped me out. And I just knew instantly that boy was going to be a pro, it just felt right. That he was totally the type that would become a pro-hero, because he wanted to help people when ever he could. It inspired me, I wanted to become someone like him...but like I said...my reason changed. Ever since I met Eri and Izuku, I kind of realized that my original reason, was both silly and kind of vain."

"It doesn't seem silly to me...I think it's beautiful!" Mina interrupted with her eyes shining at such a romantic past.

Ochako laughed a bit before continuing. "Anyway...but yeah...since I met Izuku and Eri...especially Eri and saving her, I realized that my reasons changed, I want to be a hero, not because of some silly crush I had ten years ago. I want to become a hero, because I wanted to continue saving people like Eri...who had such awful things happen to her. I want to be like All Might and save people with a smile."

"I think that is the best reason to be a hero." Tenya added, while Shouto nodded. "We strive to do what he right and help others that need it."

"Hell yeah!" Eijirou exclaimed raising his fist in the air with excitement, making most of the table laugh and gaining a few stares from everyone else. However things didn't stay cheerful as heard someone yell out.

"WHAT THE HELL?!**"**

The room went quiet; while four students began running out of the lunchroom, Mirio, Tamaki, Nejire and Nezou none of them looking happy as they made their way down the hall toward the teacher's lounge.

"Whats going on?" Tenya asked, since the alarms weren't ringing they knew it wasn't another invasion.

"That was the big five right?" Mina questioned.

"Well except for Springfield who is still out of commission..." Eijirou added sadly.

"KIRISHIMA!" They all heard someone call out, it was Tetsutetsu from Class 1-B, running toward them.

"Hey man what going on?" Eijirou asked as Tetsutetsu stopped by their table out of breath with his phone.

"THIS...LOOK AT THIS CRAP!" He answered breathlessly as he un-paused a video that was on the screen.

The table looked the phone as it began playing the video, featuring a man in a dark blue suit, surrounded by the press, when the press was silent he began speaking.

_"Yesterday, the Help Us Company better known as H.U.C, in a joint-vote with the board of the Ministry of Heroics, have upon reviewing the details of the final report of the USJ incident,has determined that **Alexander Johnathan Springfield, Provisional Hero Code name: Blink**, is hereby to be stripped of his Provisional License which was already under suspension; for his direct involvement in the death of the A-Rank villain known as **Heat Blade** and furthermore is permanently barred from ever earning a license to become a Pro-Hero in Japan."_

The small group that was still at lunch sat in silence at the news they just heard. Eijirou was struggling to comprehend why? Why did they do that to Alex when he was all but dead? Why the need to rub salt on the guy's wounds?

* * *

"I'm sorry that it took awhile for us to speak young Midoriya." All Might started out, while handing a cup of tea to his protege. They were seated in one of the teacher's lounges for the moment, All Might knew he had to make this meeting short, since he had received word from Nighteye that the Prime Minister needed a special favor done.

"No no All Might, given everything that happened, I can't blame you for being so busy!" Izuku said with a nervous laugh as he took the tea from his master.

"No my boy, even if I am busy, I owe it to you to be there, when I am needed. It is shameful that I completely missed the fight due to my own incompetence." All Might said mentally not forgiving himself for not trusting his gut during the meeting he had with Nezu.

"But All Might what about your time limit? I know that you had reached it that day." Izuku interjected. All Might sighed, "My time limit is no excuse, young Midoriya, I should have still been there for you all. Instead you all went through so much including you needing to expose your secret to the world."

"Honestly All Might, it was going to happen sooner or later...especially with the sports festival coming up. And even then...it hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought it would be...I mean sure...a lot of general studies students seemed to be avoiding me and some of my classmates seemed to be on edge around me. But compared to what I thought was going to happen its been much easier to deal with, plus All Might we still need you to be the symbol of peace, I'm still not ready to take the mantle just yet. We need you to keeping being All Might for as long as you can."

That was the only saving grace for All Might, given that he did not restraint himself further, he still had his three hours to spare, three hours that he knew he could not abuse again unless it was absolutely needed. All Might managed to breath out a surprising hearty chuckle in his skinny form.

"Look at you, young man. Giving me a pep talk? Has me thinking who is really is being the teacher here."

"Oh! I'm sorry about that sir! I didn't mean for it to come off like that!"

All Might laughed again. "I'm pulling your leg Midoriya, relax. Anyway about the plan after school, Tsukauchi will be picking you up to escort you back to the hospital...and young Uraraka as well, don't worry my boy." All Might added with a wink. Inko had been keep him update on not only Eri, but Izuku as well and the impact the young brunette had made on the family.

"Right, mom told me the plan, but she didn't mention the details. Is Mr. Aizawa really back up and moving?"

"Indeed he is, he stopped by earlier for a staff meeting and is doing some extra paperwork to take care of something... important that came up. But he will meet up with you there and proceed to look over the final bit of Eri's assessment, while I start hunting for the perfect school for Eri." All Might answered.

Izuku smiled, progress was being made to gave a more normalized life for Eri. A school were she can make friends and start making her own way in the world.

"Thank you All Might for everything." Izuku said respectfully, bowing to his teacher.

All Might responded with a warm thin smile. "I think, I've taken more than enough of your time my boy."

_'It's too early to thank me yet, young Midoriya...on the day that I restore your father's legacy is the day I can finally accept your gratitude.'_

* * *

"You sure we're heading the right way Kaminari?" Minoru asked with some annoyance as the two friends made their way down the street. They had been walking down the same street for a good twenty minutes now and it was starting to get on the short boy's nerves.

"Yeah, I'm sure!" Denki said defensively as he carried Ryu's homework in one hand and a piece of paper in his other hand that contained his friend's address. "I doubled-checked with Midnight before we headed out."

"Then why not just put it in on your phone's map...you fried another phone didn't you?"

"I'm in deep with my uncle." Denki said with a sigh as he pulled out a cheap flip phone. "He won't even give me a used smart phone."

"If I was your uncle, I would have given up by now and just given you a carrier pigeon, but you'd probably find a way to screw up and kill it."

"Ouch man!" Denki said slightly hurt, by Minoru's sharp jab.

"You have Kasei's phone right..or did you fry that too?"

"Yeah...I still got it, and no I didn't break it...it is low on battery though."

"Just give me the piece of paper...I'll put the directions in my phone." Minoru said raising his arm to reach for the paper, while pulling out his own phone. "Thankfully your hand writing is actually readable."

"Hey! I'm good with words and my handwriting is impeccable and legible." Denki said proudly with a dumb smirk on her face.

"Now if only you can make some more room in your brain to develop enough common sense to stop yourself from frying your phones...Okay I got the directions and goddamn it...it's ten minutes away in the opposite direction."

"Lead the way Mineta!"

Minoru answered by simply facepalming himself. Roughly ten minutes later, the duo arrived at a nice two-story cream white house, that had a simple yet tidy front yard. Crossing into the grounds they reached the front of the white wood door and rang the door bell.

"You think he's even home right now?" Minoru asked since Ryu didn't have his phone so they couldn't call him to make sure he was even here.

"I mean he's out of the hospital and shouldn't be out and about ya know?" Denki answered knowing Ryu had been in critical condition, one doesn't recover quickly from something like that, unless they had a healing factor quirk or outside assistance like Recovery Girl. Thankfully they didn't have to wait long for the door to open; revealing an older middle aged woman, tall with a kind -albeit slightly wrinkled face. Wearing a long light green dress and slippers, she looked at the two with a puzzled expression before asking.

"Hello? Can I help you two?"

"Umm hi, Mrs. Kasei?" Denki began asking, "My name is Denki Kaminari and this is my friend Minoru Mineta." He continued motioning to his friend who also pipped up.

"Hi!"

"And were here to see Ryu, and drop off his homework...unless we totally got the wrong place." He added sheepishly.

"Oh! You're from UA! Of course, I should have realized from your uniforms, I'm sorry, I've been a bit distracted with...a few things here in the house. And no my dear you have the right place, but I'm afraid my name is Saya Doumeki, I'm Ryu's adopted mother."

"Oh! I'm sorry we didn't know that he was adopted." Minoru responded hoping not to offend his friend's family.

"That's quite alright, I know that Ryu is still a bit rough around the edges when it comes to talking about himself, but that's beside the point, please come in. I'm sure he'll like a bit of friendly company...I do have to warn you that he did just take his medication about an hour ago and that does tend to make him a bit groggy." Saya began saying while welcoming the two into her home.

"Thank you." The two said in unison as entered the Doumeki household and left their shoes by the enterance way. It was a cozy warm place, filled with pictures on the wall with herself and what looked like her husband with several different people, some that even Minoru recognized as members of several political parties and ministry officials. Along side the pictures was a large cabinet filled with medals, trophies and additional pictures of Saya and the man he assumed was her husband when they were much younger.

_'Damn Kasei's Mom was a real looker back in the day.'_ Minoru noted mentally seeing the pictures of a younger Saya.

They entered the kitchen which seemed normal; save for the large hole on the left side wall and missing door on the right doorway.

"We had a tiny incident here earlier, I just finished cleaning it up. Would you boys like a snack or drink before seeing him?" Saya offered slightly embarrassed at the state of the kitchen. "I know that it is a bit of a trek from UA to here."

Denki looked at Minoru, who simply nodded. "Sure...we could go for a drink."

Once the boys were given some extra bottles of green tea she had in the fridge. She guided the boys upstairs to Ryu's bedroom. She knocked on the door and asked,

"Ryu honey, you're friends from UA are here to see you. Are you okay with me letting them in?"

"Yeah...it's okay." They all heard Ryu say faintly from beyond the door. Saya opened it and allowed the two to enter.

"Let me know, if you need anything else, I'll leave you boys alone," Saya said closing the door behind them.

Denki and Minoru saw their friend lying in his bed covered up in blankets, he still looked pretty roughed up. His black hair even had bits of gray/white mixed in, he had large dark bags under his golden eyes. His room was quite spartan, with only a few anime posters, a simple desk, a cabinet that Denki assumed had his friend's clothing and a large slide-in closet.

"Hey man it's been awhile." Denki began saying quietly.

Ryu simply hummed and gave him a shallow nod in response.

_'Holy shit...I'm pretty sure he's on cloud nine right now.'_ Denki thought to himself.

"Looks like the docs hooked ya up with the hard stuff huh?" Minoru joked to lighten the mood.

Ryu gave him a mild shrug and a small chuckle at the idea.

"Anyway man sorry to disturb you from resting, just wanted to say that we missed you and we're glad you're okay." Denki continued.

"Yeah man, we brought your homework plus a few other things!" Minoru added, as he took off his back pack to open it. While Denki placed the homework he was carrying on Ryu's desk. Ryu simply looked at the two with an amused smirk on his face.

"We got you some snacks and a special gift." Minoru added with a perverted grin. Handing Ryu a couple of different kinds of candy and a manga with a pink cover that would make the average manga reader be more cautious were they might display it or hide it.

"We debated on what to get you...and we thought that this pick-up me would totally do the work." Denki said with confidence.

"I did some research from our last...important lunch discussion and I have determined that you are totally into curvy girls so I got this volume from my personal collection to give ya." Minoru finished up with a wink.

Ryu deemed delighted by the candy and began laughing quietly to himself when he saw the cover of the manga. He quickly stuffed the goodies, into the desk drawer for a later time and simply said.

"Thanks...guys."

"Oh crap..here's your phone." Denki said remembering the other reason he was here. "You left it at the school...I gotta ask...especially after finding out that you're adopted, but who are the kids in the pictu-Ow!"

"Kaminari come on man!" Minoru interrupted punching Denki's arm. "He'll tell us when he's ready, shit we learned enough without his go ahead."

Ryu however didn't answer, once he took the phone from Denki's hands and checked the display, there was an odd in look in his eyes. Neither boy could really understand the expression on their friend's face it was a odd smile less warm and more goofy;ultimately the two simply concluded that the medication Ryu was on must have really been strong. After a few more minutes of catching up and Ryu answering weakly, Denki's phone began to vibrate in his pocket, with a check he saw that he got a text message from his uncle. He cursed himself as he knew that he would have to cut his visit short.

"Anyway man, we don't want to bother you further. We'll let you rest up and hope to see you on Wednesday yeah?" Denki said motioning to Minoru that it was time for them to go.

"Yeah man, rest up so you can come back soon."

Ryu looked at them with the same odd expression, and nodded.

The duo made their good-byes to Saya who in turn gave the two some leftover cookies, she had brought at her favorite bakery. "Please do come back when you can, you and anyone of your other classmates are welcome to swing by anytime."

"Thanks Mrs. Doumeki." The two said as they enjoyed the cookies. As the two made their exit through the front door, Minoru bumped into a large man who was about to enter.

"Whoa." Denki exclaimed as he saw the giant of man, towering over him, wearing a formal looking police officer's uniform. Denki was no expert when it came to cops, but even he knew the man who was in front of him was someone far up the chain.

"Who are you?" The man asked in a commanding tone, clearly suspicious about the young men who had just attempted to exit out of his home.

"Umm...hi are you Ryu's dad?" Minoru asked meekly looking at the giant who was at least three times his size.

"Kai honey you're home!" Saya said cheerfully behind the two boys, scaring both of them.

"Yes dear, who are these two? I can assume they're UA students..." Kai said looking at the boys and their uniforms. His eyes focusing on Denki once he noticed the boy's golden eyes. After all he was one of the six suspects behind the USJ infiltration, along with Mina Ashido, Tooru Hagakure*, Shino Mizuoji, and the teacher Kan Seikijiro*. And of course even his own adoptive son Ryu Kasei was not spared above suspicion, even though Kai had already had the boy investigated. He knew that the police would need to play by the book. While he had an ace up his sleeve.

"I am Kai Doumeki, Chief-Superintendent of the Musutafu police and I am Ryu's adoptive father." Kai said firmly to the two as he introduced himself.

_'Holy crap, I didn't know Kasei's dad was the one of the top cops in Japan!'_ Minoru thought to himself.

"I'm Minoru Mineta!" The boy squeaked before bowing during his introduction.

"Denki Kaminari!" Denki mimicked nervously. While Saya giggled at the sight.

"They're Ryu's friends, they just stopped by quickly to check up on him and drop off some of the homework he missed out on today." She said to spare the boys' nerves.

"I see...well then gentlemen. I thank you for watching out for my son. Please take care of him when he returns to UA." Kai responded before returning the bow to the two young men.

"Ye-yeah no problem sir!" Minoru stuttered out, before starting is walk out of the Doumeki household, dragging Denki with him. Once the two were out of sight of the Doumeki household, the two began making their way to their respective homes.

"See ya Kaminari." Minoru said before getting on a bus.

"Yeah...see you." Denki said with a sigh as he looked up at the sky. He was in for a rough night.

* * *

Tomura was forced to kneel as his brother towered over him. The two were surrounded by darkness in the presence of their master. He had feared his return and now that he was here, Tomura knew that the next few minutes could be the difference between life and death.

****"So you have survived."**** All For One said quietly, yet his voice carried throughout the small room.

"Indeed master. It took me awhile to make sure that I had both enough time and with some assistance now being able to secure my alibi, in case someone notices that I'm gone." The boy answered as his golden eyes looked at the mask that now served as his master's face. "Still it is no excuse for me being so late."

All For One began to emit a dark laughter that flooded the room with dread. ****"So what exactly happened?" ****

"Ask Tomura and his ingenious idea to place a bounty on certain classmates in an effort to eliminate me. Really man? You had to mention my eyes? DO YOU KNOW HOW UNCOMMON MY EYE COLOR IS? YOU COULDN'T GO WITH HAIR COLOR OR EVERY BOY? ANYTHING THAT WOULD BE LESS SUSPICIOUS?!" The boy began to rant at the kneeling Tomura.

****"Calm down boy."**** All For One warned his apprentice with in turned quickly bowed in head in repentance.

"Apologies master, I'm just saying, that the USJ final report that was aired on television made no mention of the bounty placed on students with my eye color. Yet given that there is no way that some of the underlings who got caught didn't squeal about the bounty. I have no doubt that it is currently being investigated under wraps." He responded.

****"Tomura?" ****

"My contacts keeping an eye in the police, especially on Chief-Superintendent Doumeki...confirm that they are indeed currently investigating everyone with yellow eyes."

"Point in my favor."**  
**

**"Given the situation on hand, that would make you the winner of this round...What is your desire my apprentice?"**

"Under different circumstances, I would have had Tomura killed." He began saying. "However we still have All Might to eliminate so I still have need of him. So master my wish is to gain another quirk...also I need my other powers restored...I don't trust Tomura anymore not to send another assassin after me. Therefore I need more power. I also request that you force Tomura to be more cooperative with me. From here on in UA is mine alone to handle, Tomura is not to interfere with matters that involve UA without my permission. He will also use our contacts in the government to make sure my fake cover story holds up."

All For One grinned from under his mask.

****"Three quirks is not enough eh? I'm not sure your body can handle a fourth without my quirk...are you sure that you want this? You know the risks." ****

"Draco Knight's son is far more powerful than we considered...I have no doubt we will clash in the future..._no, I know we will_...and therefore I will not underestimate him...I need more power. If my body can't handle this...then I deserve nothing."

All For One looked at the determination featured on the boy's face. There was so much irony to the situation it made him want to laugh.

**"**The irony that moron's son is attending UA now...then again...I should have expected that the apple would not have fallen far from the tree. Who knows? Maybe I can add the blood of another dragon to my collection. BUAHAAHAH VERY WELL! I will restore all of your powers, and grant you another. Tomura be grateful that your brother has decided to let you live, after your screw up, you will continue to have reign on outside operations, but UA is his domain...you will secure his past correct?" ****

"Master...forgive me one last thing." The boy interrupted with a cough.

**"**Yes?"****

"Tomura technically already broke one agreement with me, before. We had agreed that any dealings with Yakuza would be handled by me."

**"**In this case, I personally ordered Tomura to have The Eight Precepts of Death destroyed do you not remember?"****

The boy paused he had forgotten about that detail. "Understood then."

**"**However The Four Cardinal Kings remain intact and unharmed. The Black Iron Turtle King of The North, The White Tiger King of The West, The Azure Dragon King of the East; along with the acting boss of the south in lieu of a new Phoenix King of the South that has yet to be crowned. Tomura you will leave these to your dear brother won't you?" ****

"Yes...Master." Tomura gasped out through gritted teeth.

"Thank you for your kind generosity master...I will take my new quirk at a different time, at a different meeting, for now I'll simply settle for my proper restoration."

All For One laughed again at the irony. While Tomura did everything he could not to groan; knew what was coming.

****"Come before me now then, my apprentice."****

The boy moved forward and knelt before his master, as All for One placed his hand on the top of his apprentice's head.

****"Arise...My Dark Knight." ****

The boy began to scream loudly; screams the ripped throughout the room, making Tomura flinch as he remembered pain when he himself had received his other quirks. The screams slowly turned into a loud deafening roar. There was a bright flash of light and the boy went silent. His back began to contort and twitch violently as the back of his shirt began to stretch out, until it could no longer contain what it hid. Large red scaly wings ripped out from the shirt and began to stick out from his back, before another flash occurred as the boy slowly began to arise with scales covering his body. The color? The room was too dark see the color of the scales that shined like tempered steel with razor sharp claws.

A dragon had reawakened.

* * *

It was a tough sight to see, for everyone in Alex's hospital room. Izuku, Ochako, Inko and Eri remained silent as Eraserhead and Alex's physician were finalizing the last bits of paperwork. Alex's room which was once quite barren, was now filled with gifts from various well wishers. Including some very beautiful flowers that was placed next to the comatose American, who remained perfectly still; wired up to the life-support systems.

They didn't know that this was going to be part of Eri's assessment. To try and repair a type of brain damage that is thought to be untreatable, Ochako knew that Eri's powers was capable of healing massive wounds, like she did with Izuku after the Overhaul fight. Yet this seemed like it might have been too much to her to heal, not to mention that a lot of time had passed, Izuku's notes didn't account if length of time could be a factor with Eri's quirk.

Eri grew nervous. She had not used her quirk since the USJ and even then, she still blamed herself for causing the incident. She was convinced that Overhaul had come for her...that Alex and everyone else who had gotten hurt, was because they were trying to protect her. Like how Fumikage and Ryu had done.

_'You are cursed, you little brat.' _ She heard the venom-laced voice of Overhaul in the back of her mind.

_'Your quirk was meant to destroy. After all it was you who killed your own mother.' _She remembered these words well. When Overhaul wanted to make a point on why she would suffer. He would be quick to remind her of her past crimes.

"We just need you to sign here, Ms. Barton." Alex's physician could be heard saying handing the last bit of paperwork to Lucy.

"Mr. Aizawa...do you really think it will work?" Lucy asked with a sad expression on her face holding on to the paper unsigned. "And even if it does...what do we tell him if he wakes up...that he woke up just to be told that his dreams are gone."

"Ms. Barton...if this works and Springfield is able to be healed, the doors to his future are still wide open...if it doesn't or you refuse to allow the procedure then he only has one future...at least if this works...he will still have options open to him... and besides, who says that his career as a Pro-hero is truly over? Some stuff suits in the diet?" Eraserhead began saying behind his bandages. "No, not if I have anything to do about it. Springfield will no longer be a Hero Course student, but that does not mean that he no longer a UA student. And as his teacher, I will not abandon him or any of my students, past or present who reaches out to me. That I promise you...all I can offer is the chance of hope. It is up to Springfield himself what he wants to do with that hope."

Izuku and company save for Eri, smiled. They didn't expect an underground Pro like Eraserhead to have such a soft spot for his students. Something told him that in another universe he could have been his homeroom teacher instead of Midnight and he wouldn't complain about it. All of the staff at UA were amazing people in their own right, he was just lucky to know this first hand.

Lucy looked at Eraserhead, then at Eri and finally to her cousin, after a long pregnant pause, Lucy signed the form, she would leave Alex's future in the hands of fate now. A chance of hope.

"Let me know when you're ready." The doctor said as she began to prep Alex up.

"Midoriya...place Eri onto the bed, with Springfield." Eraserhead requested.

"You ready Eri?" Izuku asked the young girl in his arms. Eri began to looked scared as she continued to hear Overhaul's voice in her head.

**_'Cursed brat.' _**

**_'Unwanted.'_**

_**'Killer.'** _

"Eri?" Ochako called out to the blank expression on Eri's face, slowly brushing her hair. Eri looked at the two, remembering the words she wanted to say to both. Looking at Izuku she could only think of one word to describe him, Papa. Turn to Ochako she could only think of one word to describe her, Mama.

_'Remember you killed your own mother...who to say you won't someday kill them?' _

"It is a lot of pressure to put on the girl." Inko said worried if they were asking too much of Eri right now.

"Eri...are you okay?" Izuku asked looking at Eri right in the eyes.

"I'm scared." Eri finally breathed out with tears welling up in her eyes. "I don't want to hurt anyone...I'm scared that, I'll only hurt Blinky more!"

"You healed me." Izuku said softly wrapping Eri up in a hug, catching her by surprise. "I may not remember it all to well, but you saved me Eri. After the fight with Overhaul, you saved me from bleeding out."

"That's right Eri." Ochako said reassuringly. "I saw how Izuku was at the end...and look at him now. Not a scar on him, because of you and your quirk."

"But...what if it doesn't work? What if Blinky doesn't wake up?"

"Eri, it wouldn't be your fault. We don't know the limits of your quirk, all we do know is that there is a small chance that you might be able to heal him." Izuku continued. "Mr. Aizawa is here to make sure you can't hurt anyone."

"That's right and we're here to make sure everything will be okay...no matter what happens Eri."

"Excuse me...can I say something?" Lucy asked as she walked closer to Eri.

"Hello Eri...I'm Alex's cousin, Lucy." She said with a small wave.

"He-hello Lushi." Eri said with a shy stutter while slightly mispronouncing the young woman's name.

"I've been told that angels come down to grant miracles. And when I see you...I think you could possibly be that angel to grant my one wish, my one prayer...could you please help my cousin?"

Eri didn't expected to be called an angel. She knew that angels were said to be wonderful, like one that blessed Jin in her favorite story. The Angel of miracles that restored the Fafnir Knight to full strength when things were getting dire. She had thought herself a demon thanks to Overhaul, but just like Overhaul had been wrong about him returning to claim her. Maybe he hould be wrong about this too. Eri kept looking at the young woman, before looking back at the two she saw as her parents. She trusted them to keep their word to her. She wouldn't hurt anyone, she was here to help someone. Like so many had help her, it was time to help someone else. After a moment she breathed in and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I...want to try."

"Are you sure?" Izuku asked. "I don't want to force you."

"I want to try...please." Eri asked in a slightly more firm voice. Izuku looked at everyone else and nodded, he went up to Alex's bedside and set Eri down. As she settled on the bed Eri grabbed Alex's hand trying to remain calm.

"Okay let me just finish the prep work." The doctor said as she removed the IV's that were attached to Alex's body. "Okay I'm ready."

"As am I." Eraserhead added looking at the young girl.

**_'It won't work.'_**

_**'You'll destroy him.'** _

Eri ignored the voice, choosing to trust them. Choosing to trust in the family she gained. Slowly Eri began to glow, her horn beginning to grow in size as her quirk activated.

**_'It won't work.'_**

_**'You will only make it worse.'** _

Eri continued the glow became brighter, her horn reaching it's peak recorded size. She continued to ignore the voice and continued trying as hard as she could, trusting in their words. Overhaul's voice slowly began disappearing as she continued to focus.

_'it won't work.'_

_'monster.'_

Everyone watched in amazement as the golden light filled the room. After a minute or so Eri stopped, exhausted from the use of her quirk. She looked around the room, before looking back at Alex. He didn't seem any worse...nor he didn't seem any better either. Everyone in the room was silent, it seemed like the treatment didn't work. Eri felt disappointed as she let go of Alex's hand.

Only _he_ didn't let go of her. Alex's hand had in glasped Eri's hand instead as the boy began stirring from the sudden movement, his eyes slowly flicking open; revealing his bright blue eyes coming back full of life. In an instant the small crowd went from disappointment to stunted. Alex looked around his surroundings blinking to restore is blurrly version. Only to see Eri by his bedside, and everyone looking at him in disbelief.

"What's...going on?" He finally managed ask groggily to the stunned onlookers. Ochako seeing Lucy's face quickly scooped up Eri to make room for crying woman who lunged at the awoken Alex, bear hugging her cousin; refusing to let go.

"YOU'RE AWAKE! YOU'RE AWAKE ALEX! YOU'RE AWAKE!" She said while sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder as Inko and everyone else was trying hard not to do the same. While the doctor was also moved by the sudden miracle; she also needed to check Alex's vitals and make sure there was no permanent damage.

"Let's give them some room your three." Inko whispered to the trio, leaving Eraserhead, Lucy, the doctor and Alex alone.

"I'm sorry Lucy...I'm sorry." They could hear him say repeatedly in the same groggy voice as they made their exit.

"You did it Eri!" Ochako praised Eri kissing her on the cheek. "You saved him!"

Eri was completely elated by the praise we was getting from the three, she had done it. She had helped save someone, Overhaul was wrong. Her quirk wasn't one of destruction, in the right situation. It was a quirk of restoration.

"You're amazing Eri!" Izuku continued wanting to make sure that Eri knew that she had done a wonderful thing. Before anything else could be said, Eri felt the darkness that had plagued her slowly fade away. Tears began welling up in her eyes, but these weren't sad tears. These were tears of joy that were running down her face, as she felt her heart becoming free.

"Eri are you okay?" Izuku asked in a worried voice. While Ochako and Inko tried to soothe the small girl only to be met with an unexpected reaction. Eri embraced both teens and said the words she had been waiting for say to both of them for the last few weeks. Words that changed this small family forever.

"Thank you Mama...Papa."

* * *

As the doctor finished up her check-up, she couldn't help but be amazed that the young girl could have really done such a thing as restoring someone who had no expected chance of recovery. She had almost scoffed at the idea, when Shouta Aizawa had proposed the idea, as part of the young girl's assessment, but in the long run, they had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

"We'll need to run a few more tests on him...but given the preliminary examination, I say he's in the clear, Ms. Barton."

"Thank you Doctor." Lucy breathed out as she held her cousin's hand.

"Yeah...thanks for watching out for me doc." Alex managed to say with a slightly goofy smile, Shouta however knew that he needed to speak his piece now.

"Springfield." He said suddenly as he made his way to Alex's bedside.

"Oh shit...it's a mummy." Alex said with a laugh, trying to get back to his old self.

"Alex!" Lucy chided him.

"Yeah yeah...sorry Mr. Aizawa." Alex said sheepishly. "But hey can't wait to see the team again...did they miss me? Of course they did! Look at all those gifts I got while I was out. Look out UA Blink is coming bac-"

"Springfield...there's something you should know about." Shouta interrupted the young man. The sooner he learned, the sooner he could cope.

Alex's eyes slowly began widen as his dreams slowly began crashing down on him.

* * *

**Author's Commentary **

Additional suspects * Simple terms, we still have no idea how Tooru Hagakure looks like without being invisible so it is still completely possible to have golden eyes. In the case of Vlad King his eyes are soo damn small, he had no official eye color so fuck it. GOLDEN EYES!

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter! The next chapter is the finale for Arc II and I have another announcement. From here on in, on my FFN profile.

I will have a "Status" post on my profile to show you the current progress of the next chapter. So if you go on my profile page right now you will see this.

**_Current chapter progress._**

**_My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight_**

**_Chapter XXVIII - Current-Progress (1-5% Outlining) _**

_**My Hero Academia Untold: Draco Knight**_

_**Chapter IV- Current-Progress (0% Waiting for Arc III) **_

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fields of Spring **_

_**Chapter I – Current-Progress (0% Waiting for Arc III)**_

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight Anime Openings and Endings**_

_**Chapter I – Current-Progress (0% Waiting to finish up Arc III) **_

_**My Hero Academia Untold: Interviews! **_

_**Chapter I – Current-Progress (0% Waiting to finish Arc II) **_

As you can also see I have added more projects for the Untold universe! Most information will be revealed about these new projects soon and how they tie into the main story. But the main reason for this to assure you readers, of what is the current status of the next chapter. (I will update the status every 3-5 days depending the situation and will also provide an estimated publication date)

So if you are ever wondering what is the current status of a particular story? Check out my profile on FFN . Net and you'll get to see the progress for yourself!

Anyway that is all for now my dear readers!

The next chapter and the finale of Arc II

_**Chapter XXVIII: What it means to have hope. **_

Will be out as soon as possible.


	28. What it means to have hope

Welcome back my dear readers to the finale of Arc II which has been a long time coming since I restarted this project so I consider this to be quite an achievement and especially those who have stuck with me from the first version of this story.

I sincerely from the very bottom of my heart thank you so much for sticking with me and my idiocy. Now! Wow I think I broke a personal record for most reviews in a single update and that always brings a smile to my face. Especially to those individuals that brings up errors and ways I can correct them (constructive criticism is always welcomed here no questions asked!) Or ask interesting questions/theorizing on what I plan to do next, or even just expressing your general thoughts on the chapter. These without a doubt tend to be the highlight of my day after I update a chapter.

So some general stuff I saw in the comments I will answer these both here and in one tiny spoiler for this chapter, I will answer another common question raised in the commentary section. I'm glad that people reacted well to my "Chapter Status updates" section of my profile page, as a way of keeping track of when the next update will come and not worry that I suddenly go radio silent for an extra long period of time with no explanation. Just keeping an eye on my profile as I do update it every 3-5 days.

So user** Xekless** brought up something interesting regarding other schools. I will be exploring other schools, I have already thrown things like Mt. Lady going to Ketsubetsu in this story. We will get to see characters from Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu, but I will confess that Seiai Academy will be the school that will be most featured in the future, with the most well known (And only named character so I need to come up with several female Japanese names...yay.) from that school.

Saiko Intelli will become a very important central character later on in this story.

While in the case of user **EmrysGreystone, **like I said before this is a story that is best read and then re-read later on. User **Jetstar77** had also previous done this, and yes you guys began discovering several of the clues I had left behind from the very beginning that hints at things that have already happened or will happen in the future.

Anyways that being said! Since this is the arc's finale, I will be taking a short break (About a week) in order to begin and prepare my plans for the Sport festival which has its own twist and turns from canon. (I think should be common knowledge that I do things very differently when it comes to canon events. I already got the key plot stuff known, for example I know the winner of the sports fest etc.) I will also be taking this time to go back and fix up the grammar and spelling (or replacing certain with the correct words goddamn it homonyms)

I've already managed to fix up some of the more obvious stuff in the earliest chapters, but I still need to fix up the later chapters. So if you plan on re-reading this story, you should be in for a smoother experience as I make those corrections.

That being said please enjoy the chapter.

* * *

**Reviews** Because of the number of reviews, I have decide to answer some via private messages.

**Kerlongsj Evert Oreljov: **All I ask is that you trust me. Given changes I made to everyone in order to set-up their own development will make sense in the future. Denki especially has an interesting character arc planned out for him, along with Minoru. As for Katsuki knowing about Ochako's story yeah? I mean how would anyone else know? The only reason Katsuki knows what Ochako is talking about was because he has heard the same story before from the boy's side. Izuku hasn't revealed this snippet of his past to anyone else...yet. And yes I will break the fourth when it suits me.

**ProjectIceman:** No comment on key parts of your review, but I do hope you enjoyed that t roller coaster of emotions. Expect more of that in the future.

**Ooobserver: **And I still have a lot more up my sleeves.

**AnimeFan29910: **Eri in time will become a strong girl in her own right. She is still not completely over everything, but I wanted to give this to Eri as a turning point and being able to open her heart to the idea of family itself.

** JCHudson: **I'm still can't believe how many people reacted to Alex getting screwed over and honestly I'm still surprised that people really care about some of the OC's that I created for this story. As for your AFO comment, it is kind of ambiguous in canon but for the sake of my story. AFO steals quirks, but cannot copy quirks but he can surrender quirks to another.

**moonstar31548: **And that is how I want these characters to develop and grow. From student to teacher

**Jetstar77: **There was a lot to cover in that review so I'll break it down quickly. I do my best to make this world as dynamic as possible. Actions big or small could have several unforeseen consequences and I keep track of all of it. Character development be it for a minor, major or OC character is still very important for me. I didn't go over the sports festival in great detail, because the general concept is still the same. For the "Ibarra's actions" if you real the chapter when Minoru as his moment during the Overhaul fight, you might have noticed that Ibarra Shiozaki had one of her vines, wrapped around Minoru and pulled him out using it, when Overhaul had collapsed, saving his tiny butt from being crushed.

* * *

**Recommendation: **Dr J33 is going to kill me.

Today...I want to recommend my friend's crack fic.

_**Kaminari and Mineta Raid Area 51 by Dr J33 **_

I have nothing else to say other that I laughed** HARD**. It is an AO3 exclusive, it is short, sweet and a real treat so be sure to give it a read.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.

Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc II: The Incident (Finale)**_

_**Chapter XXVIII: What it means to have hope.**_

* * *

"_**When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too."**_

_**-Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist**_

* * *

In the Midoriya household the small family had just returned from the hospital and as everyone settled in, Inko quickly decided to take matters into her own hands. She knew that the two teens were going to need some space to start talking about what they were going to do about this recent development.

"Eri why don't we let Mama and Papa talk for a tiny bit?" Inko asked sweetly as she quickly scooped up Eri, "You can help me make dinner."

"Okay," Eri chirped as Inko took her to the kitchen, none the wiser as why her two 'parents' had been silent and red faced since her confession was heard by the two.

"Thanks mom," Izuku managed to whisper, before guiding Ochako into his bedroom. When they entered and closed the door behind them, they took their seats across from each other. Ochako sat on Eri's bed, while Izuku sat on his chair. Silence reigned for a few moments as the two newly minted parents were trying to start perhaps the strangest conversation either of them had ever expected to have.

Yet given in this unexpected development, they knew that they needed to talk it out as Izuku had previously thought in the rare times he had heard Eri say "Mama," was in reference to Inko and not Ochako. And that she had been coming to view him as an older brother not a father. The same could be said for Ochako, while she had never heard Eri say the word "Mama" before, she knew that Eri had said it before thanks to Izuku and like him she thought that Eri looked at Ochako like a big sister not as a mother. After a few more moments of the deafening and awkward silence between them it was Izuku who finally broke the ice.

"I'm sorry about that Ochako...I-I didn't think that was going to happen," Izuku confessed nervously while scratching the back of his neck.

"You don't have to apologize for something you didn't do, silly." Ochako said with a soft smile understanding he must be feeling the exact the same way.

"R-right..." Izuku looked off into a corner, "so what do you think we should do?" He looked back to her as he asked; given the large absence of his father, he wasn't sure if he could be properly equipped to deal with raising Eri as a daughter.

He honestly had no issues with being a dad for her because if that is what she needed; then he was more than happy to do it, but could he really do it? It was a scary to think about being a father when he was still technically a child himself. Not to mention there was still a chance that Eri could end up being sent away from them, should the situation change, after all Overhaul had finally been caught. His crimes, including parts of the horror that he had inflicted on the young girl had finally been revealed to them, thanks to Naomasa.

"I'm not sure just I'm worried that, I might mess things up for her," Ochako admitted sadly. "Part of me was really happy to be called mama, but I'm also worried that…I'm not the right fit, that I'm not the right type of person that she needs to be her mother. I mean, I'm nothing compared to your mom who is just wonderful...and I'm just me."

Izuku looked genuinely surprised by Ochako's statement.

"I think you've been wonderful for Eri." He started reaching for her right hand and seeing the small scars that she had gained from the USJ.

Ochako instantly broke out with a red face, Izuku however pressed on while holding to her soft hand.

"You could have stopped being there for her, the moment Eri came to our care. Instead you checked on her constantly, helped feed her, teach her...you even her read that story whenever she asks at bedtime," Izuku said pointing at the book with his other hand; to the book that had almost become a permanent feature of his bedside stand. "You saved both of us, during and after the battle with Overhaul."

"But I had help, I didn't do that alone! I mean it you took care of most of the work during that fight." Ochako exclaimed feeling like she was getting far more credit that she deserved. "Besides, you and your mom were the ones who gave her a home, clothes, toys and making sure she got all the medical treatment she needed."

"And I had help too! I couldn't have done that without my mom and All Might... and I couldn't have fought and won against Overhaul alone," Izuku continued before grabbing Ochako's other hand, "I needed help in order to win...I needed you and everyone else who helped out."

As Izuku said this something in Ochako's mind suddenly clicked.

"Maybe that's the key." Ochako said suddenly looking right at Izuku's eyes. "I think we've been focusing more on doing this by ourselves, than what we've already been doing together."

Izuku gave Ochako a puzzled look as he tried to piece together what she meant. "What do you mean?"

"We're both scared about screwing up right? But we're both scared of screwing up by ourselves, rather than thinking about working together like we've already been doing! Think about it! We've actually have already been acting like her parents without even realizing it. And in the end, I think that is the reason why Eri chose us and if that is the case, then really the only thing that changes is what she calls us right?"

Izuku's face went blank as he began processing her words."You're right...if you look at it like that...then all that changes, _is_ the way she addresses us!" Izuku said as he realized what Ochako meant as she nodded.

"Then do you want to try it Izuku?" Ochako said she now took Izuku's hands into her own careful not to accidentally use her quirk.

"Huh?"

"Like before we can work together right? Be there for her? To try and be the best parents we could her...as long as she needs us to be?" She said with her beautiful brown eyes look right into Izuku's green ones.

"Only if you are sure that you want to do it." Izuku answered firmly; making her laugh.

"I'm the one that asked you right?" She said jokingly with a giggle.

Izuku simply smiled;left amazed by her. She was right, if they had been doing this already and she was fine with taking the role of mother, then he knew that together they could help give Eri the life she deserved.

"Mama! Papa! Dinner is ready!" Eri called out from behind Izuku's door. "Inki made pancakes!"

The two newly minted parents couldn't help but let their smiles grow bigger as Eri sounded so happy saying that. The two knew it was the turnaround they both wanted Eri to have and to protect her from ever experiencing the horrors she once lived ever again.

* * *

The drive had been quiet and peaceful as Ryu looked out the window of Saya's car. On the outside he looked very bored yet on the inside he was both nervous and excited. Part of him had been looking forward to his visit, yet part of him also dreaded it.

"It's been awhile since you last saw them right?" Saya asked as she kept her eyes on the road.

"Three months, since Maki's birthday," Ryu answered without skipping a beat and leaning back on his seat. "You didn't need to give me a lift Mrs. Doumeki...though I do appreciate it."

"Nonsense!" Saya exclaimed with a small laugh, "you're still recovering and even though you are cleared to go back to school tomorrow. The doctor still wants you to take it easy and not to strain yourself. It doesn't hurt that I'm still on leave from work until the day after tomorrow so I didn't have much planned out either way. But I won't say no to you getting out of the house and getting some fresh air, plus getting to see you with those adorable kids isn't something I want to pass up now that I got the chance."

Ryu's face began burning with embarrassment to the point that he felt the need to hide his face with his hands. It had become harder to put up an emotional wall between himself and the woman. She was just too nice from him to put up a complete guard like he had used to do, before the USJ. His mask had cracked and it only made him nervous.

"Oh stop it!" She teased upon seeing his reaction. "There is nothing embarrassing about wanting to see them, they're basically family to you! I mean you even mentioned that it was ummm...what was his name? Taki?"

"Takuya," Ryu corrected her as he pulled up his cell phone and point out his foster brother. "But the girls like to call him Taki, because it's cute."

"Right, he's the artist one right?" She continued asking for clarification. "You mentioned that he's the one who drew up the design for your hero costume right?"

"And he totally blew up in embarrassment when I sent in the picture of me wearing it." Ryu said with a small laugh, as he pulled up the chat log with the two of when he had sent a selfie of himself with his costume on.

* * *

**Big** **Bro (Ryu): Image sent.**

**Mangaman (Takuya): OMG WHY?! I SENT THAT DESIGN TO YOU AS A JOKE!**

**Big Bro (Ryu): How was I not going to use it?! You've seen me draw, I suck at it! And I had to submit something! What could be better than using the design my loving lil bro made for me?  
**

**Mangaman (Takuya): I don't care! Change before you go out in public with it! You just look so lame with it on!**

**Mangaman(Takuya): Maki said it looks lame too.**

**Mangaman(Takuya): And Sachi just laughed at your silly pose.**

**Big Bro (Ryu): Oooh Wow you guys are really breaking my heart right now.**

**Big Bro (Ryu): Thankfully I have a solution...I'm definitely going to keep this lame costume you designed for me. Just to show how much I love you guys.**

**Mangaman(Takuya): NO!**

**Big Bro (Ryu): YES!**

**Mangaman (Takuya): I hate you right now.**

**Big Bro (Ryu): I love you too Taki.**

**Mangaman (Takuya): DX  
**

**Mangaman (Takuya): I'll redesign it! Just don't wear it out in public please! I'll just die if you do!**

**Big Bro (Ryu): Deal.**

* * *

Saya giggled as Ryu had read aloud the texts.

"Did they send you anything recently?" She asked not knowing that Ryu had only recently got his cellphone back.

Ryu's face almost turned sour, but instead he kept it steady when he responded with.

"They did...and that's why I want to go see them personally."

Ryu pulled up the most recent messages he received, but didn't read them aloud. He had missed these messages, since he didn't have his phone until Denki delivered it yesterday. Even now it was painful for him to even think about how scared and worried they had been for him.

* * *

**Mangaman (Takuya): Ryu are you okay!? We saw the news! Please answer back when you can!**

**Mangaman (Takuya): They said that some students were sent to the hospital! Please text us back! Sachi's been crying since we saw the update. **

**Mangaman (Takuya): Please be safe big brother.**

**Mangaman (Takuya): Big sis Michi, send that your in the hospital can we come see you?**

**Mangaman (Takuya): said* you're***

**Mangaman (Takuya): I'm sorry that I called you lame for wearing the costume I drew. Just please let us know that you're safe...please. **

**Mangaman(Takuya): I love you brother, please text us back. **

* * *

It completely broke him to read these. The last one had been sent on the night he had been discharged from the hospital, four days ago.

There was just no way he would just simply respond to them out of the blue like that. He knew that he needed to go see them, not just for them, but for himself as well. He needed to be reminded of what and why he was fighting for; to try and give them a better future. A future they deserve.

"Wow...the place looks very different from when I was last here with Kai," Saya commented as they pulled up on Ryu's old home. The place was a nice sized single story building that recently been repainted and had some of the outside equipment had been restored, or outright replaced. Compared to a year ago when most of the paint had been chipping away, and almost all of the playground equipment was rusty and unusable.

"Mr. Anno has been pulling strings and had the Neocons donate a sizable amount of money to the place since I left." Ryu interjected with a small frown.

It was a public relations stunt to disguise the fact, that it had been part of Ryu's requests before being adopted by Doumekis. It was way to secure not only his loyalty for his task at hand,but so that the three kids he left behind would have a bigger budget to get them newer and better things. He was glad to see it had gone a long way for an orphanage that was for kids who were considered, _"un-adoptable"_.

A polite, politically correct way of saying, that with the exception of Ryu three remaining children were quirkless. While he had been considered un-adoptable due to his past behavioral issues.

"Really?" Saya questioned surprised by Ryu's comment as she parked the car. "That strikes me to be rather odd, because always I found Anno to be a complete horse's ass whenever I had the displeasure of meeting him."

Ryu paused before bursting out with laughter by Saya's unexpected remark towards the old politician. Hideyoshi was widely seen in the public eye as the epitome of calmness and civility. Yet few ever have the misfortune to see him when he become angry to the point that he begins to lash out violently. The fact Saya could see that without knowing this, actually impressed him.

"I'm simply saying that it sounds out of character for him. I'm not one for politics, but I've never been a fan of the Neocon movement, they have gone to do some genuinely good things, like trying to fix issues with the gaps between those with quirks and those without. Yet I feel like they go too far with some policies regrading Pro Heroes. Like that nonsense about foreign heroes affecting the quality of native Pro-Heroes? It only makes headaches for everyone and ends up making Japan look backward on the international stage."

"Fair enough," Ryu managed to say as he finished up laughing as he and Saya exited out of the vehicle.

"Ready to see them?" Saya asked Ryu who had stopped by the fence that divided the grounds to really take a good look at his old home.

"Is that you Saito?" Ryu heard a familiar voice say; fair distance away was a young woman who made her way to them with a broom on hand.

"Hi big sis Michi." Ryu said in a teasing voice and a large grin growing on his face. "But my name is Kasei now remember? Or you could just call by my first name ya know?" He added with a small wink.

Suna Michishio, daughter of the director of the Summerlands orphanage and one of the caretakers of the children here. She was short young woman with bright orange hair with slightly square shaped blue eyes. Ryu couldn't deny having a mild attraction to her despite the age gap between them.

"Ah I'm sorry about that, _Kasei_." She answered back with a slight frown upon seeing that mischievous smile on his face."I'm glad to see you're better. I was so worried for you and all of those kids that were caught up in that whole mess at UA."

"And I'm sorry for worrying all of you." Ryu said sincerely while scratching the back of his head nervously. Saya simply stood there with a smile as she got to see just how open Ryu was being now, then again this had been his home for the longest time, it must have felt right for him being back.

"Where is everyone?" Ryu questioned as he looked around the grounds; knowing that the kids would normally have an outside break time around now.

Suna answered promptly. "They're inside watching TV right now, Sachi is still sick from last week and-"

Ryu didn't even let her finish as the boy simply hopped the small fence and ran to the building with newly found energy. Leaving the two ladies behind in the dust. Suna let out a nervous chuckle, "I'm sorry about that Mrs. Doumeki," She said while she gestured to the orphanage, "would you like to come inside for tea?"

"That's sounds good about now thank you."

Ryu burst into the familiar small hallway that had been decorated with small hand drawn flowers of different shapes and colors. He quickly dropped his shoes by the entrance way and began making quickly yet silently down to the dorms and common living area. Sachi always had a weaker constitution compared to everyone else, so it had always been a challenge to keep her healthy. Even though she was in good hands here, he couldn't help but worry about her.

He suddenly stopped when he heard Maki's laughing down the hall. His heart began racing as his excitement to see them only grew.

Once he had made it to the common room, he leaned in slightly to find that all three were facing away from where he was; watching a repeat episode of Animal Buddies. Slowly he tiptoed his way behind the trio until he was right behind Sachi who was currently drinking a juice box. He kept himself crouched as not to be spotted.

"So is Blink really not going to be on the show anymore?" Maki said sadly still looking at the TV, watching the young American along with a few other young foreign hero students on the show talking about their experiences of coming into Japan with Comicman while Anima would sign the conversation.

_"It took me a long time to learn just how much yen translated from American dollars! The first time I heard that I got a million yen,* I was like. 'I'm rich haha!'"_

"I don't know, I mean he could still be on the show if Comicman or Anima wanted him, but he just wouldn't be Blink anymore." Takuya answered with a slightly unsure tone in his voice.

"Do you think big brother Ryu could be on TV?" Sachi asked before coughing lightly.

"If I chose the right Pro to intern with after the sports festival then maybe," Ryu decided to answer as he leaned forward to reveal himself to the three, they all turned away from the TV and stared at him in silence.

"Heya guys good to se-"

Ryu didn't even get chance to finish his sentence as all three kids quickly tackled him; grabbing onto him tightly as they could, not wanting to let him go. Ryu could already feeling them shaking, with his shirt quickly becoming damp.

"I'm sorry for not answering you guys sooner," Ryu whispered to them as he managed to wrap his own arms around all of them; trying not to breakdown himself.

* * *

_**"And now, we have one last special announcement, but first we want to show everyone this video that was kindly put together by the general studies class."**_

Alex sat in his hospital bed; re-watching what he considered the happiest day of his life on his cell phone. The day he was promoted to the Hero Course after his performance at last year's sports festival. Lucy had stepped out to grab him some much needed lunch; something solid and unhealthy, a goddamn burger. He was finally given the green light to be discharged after one last check-up and given the all clear to eat solid foods again; something he needed like no tomorrow.

He sat there still watching the video with anger in his heart; knowing that he should be grateful, coming back from condition that some would consider to be worse than death.

_**"And recognition for the most improvement made is: Alexander Springfield."**_ The voice of Present Mic could be heard over the speakers of his phone.

_Yet. _

Part of him felt like it would have just been better if he simply stayed down or better yet just flat out died. That way he could have died with the illusion of going out like a hero. Instead he woke up and had been basically told to go and fuck himself.

_**"But dear listeners, it doesn't just end there! As some of you may have noticed, but recently we had a spot open up in the hero course..."**_

He watched as the younger version of himself freeze up when he heard those words. He remembered how his heart had begun to race when those words of hope had been spoken. That feeling of hope.

_'Goddamnit...why am I even watching this?!'_ He thought to himself trying hard not to cry, trying not to think about all of the years of his life that have been wasted. All of those years of studying Japanese; taking extra language courses to the point that he neglected having a social life back home. He could remember all of the naysayers, mocking him for wanting to carve his own path.

"_Fucking weeb!_

"_Japan doesn't want anti-social losers like you!"_

_"Hey Fatass there's no way some white hick kid can get into UA, just stick to the hero courses here!" _

Those words stung, but he would always play it off jokingly, because he wanted to be the type of hero that could save the day with a laugh. He loved heroes like Comicman, Ms. Joke, and any hero who could help someone in need and make them laugh while doing it.

So he resolved to be try and be funny when he could, even if it was only enough to make himself laugh; enough to cheer himself up. Even his own parents weren't the most supportive folks, they were all up for him to become a Pro-Hero, but they had thought that his dreams to go to UA were merely just that; a dream and nothing more.

It took a long time to convince them and even longer to have Lucy accept him since she had lived and worked in Japan for the past few years. He was willing to work himself to the bone and that's exactly what he did.

When the once in a lifetime chance for the exchange program examination came, he remembered the weeks of extra cramming and sleepless nights. To make that dream a reality...only he ended up neglecting his own health; becoming excessively overweight by the time of his examination.

He passed exchange program exam, but at a cost that only became obvious in hindsight to him after he failed practical entrance exam for UA that he realized that he was in no real shape to be a proper hero, not with his type of quirk. So he doubled down during his first year as a general studies student and began diet and exercise regimen that caused him to slim down nearly seventy pounds in just under a year, while improving his body's tone and muscle definition.

It was one of the most miserable experiences for him, avoiding several of his favorite foods, snacks and drinks. It was a grueling process, but one that resulted in his promotion to liaison just before the first year of school ended. But it had been worth it. Just to hear those words.

_**"And after today's performance, a unanimous decision was made during the break while we were setting the stage for the award ceremony. I officially got the OK from Principal Nezu himself to go ahead…"**_

The words that made all of that hard miserable work pay off. The words that gave him the right to say **"Fuck you!"** to everyone who told him that he couldn't do it. The words he needed to hear so badly, so desperately that it made all of his pain and sacrifices worth it.

_**"I am pleased to announce and welcome a new student to the hero course: Alexander Springfield, welcome aboard to your Hero Academia!"**_

_What the hell did he have now?_

He was a disgraced student, stripped of his license and now barred from reaching his dreams of becoming a Pro-Hero. And all because he killed a villain. It was an accident of course, he didn't mean to kill him, but he wasn't broken up about killing the bastard either. He looked him up; Heat Blade had a solid record of cold-blooded murders and had gone after his juniors who were kids in comparison to himself; an eighteen year old young adult who was ready to die if it came down to it.

Instead he was still alive, he did his duty. He saved his juniors, yet he only felt empty and hollow.

"What the hell will I do now?" Alex asked himself quietly as the tears threatened to run down his face. He was about to replay the video, if only to relive the moment again, when he heard a knock on his room door.

"Alex?" He heard the voice of Lucy call out to him. Alex immediately hit the home button on his phone, and quickly wiped the tears away from his eye ducts. Opting to pretend to have just woken up from a nap, he just couldn't bare to let her see him like this. He gave a great big fake yawn and answered in English.

**"I'm decent." **

With that, the door slid open and Lucy walked in with a paper bag from a local burger joint and a large soda.

"Got you food!" She said in Japanese with a cheerful smile, hoping that her cousin was feeling better.

"Oh Lucy, you are totally my hero right now." Alex said with a snort switching back to Japanese as his mouth began watering upon seeing the bag.

"Tch, Shaddup." Lucy said with a click of her tongue and a roll of her eyes as she handed her cousin the food. She watched as Alex began unwrapping his food and proceeding to eat with gusto.

"Hmmm!" Alex groaned in joy after taking a bite of the burger. "Go'mn! Di's goo'd!" He said with a mouthful of food. A few speckles of burger flew out.

"Stop being a pig!" Lucy chided him before sighing and gave him an update. "I got word from Comicman." She said while pulling out, four golden slips of paper. "He said they're completely free of charge."

"Awesome!" Alex said with a grin. "I'm glad that Mirio reminded me of what I had told the kids back on the bus. Given that I didn't get a chance to thank them yesterday, I hope that this will be enough to show my thanks to them."

"Speaking of Togata…" Lucy drawled, getting back up to open the door. "Come in guys!"

Not a moment past as the rest of Alex's team began walking in, making Alex overjoyed to see them all.

"OH LUCY! You shouldn't have! I can't believe you brought me Japan's best stripper! Quick let me borrow like 20,000 yen and we can get this show on the road!" Alex quickly exclaimed with a laugh the moment he saw Mirio.

Nejire who had not been expecting Alex's comment had completely lost it and she began laughing hard enough that she needed to hold on to her sides, while Tamaki and Mezou both looked at each other with a knowing looks of amusement. All while Mirio simply looked at his friend; having picked up on a few of his habits and answered just as quickly.

"I'm afraid a show today would be 50,000 yen a minute."

An answer that made Alex roar with laughter that Mirio actually responded this time.

"Oh my god Alex why?!" Lucy exclaimed while covering her red face completely embarrassed by her cousin's antics.

"Just sayin'!" Alex answered before taking another large bite of his burger, before giving Mirio's butt a knowing glance. "Tha's J'pan's ass ri'hd der."

"I'm sorry Togata," Lucy said to Mirio, who simply waved it off.

"It's alright. Whatever he needs to do to get back on his feet is welcomed by me. All joking aside Alex, we're glad that you're awake." Mirio responded with a thumb's up and a wink. Internally however he was worried. Alex may have been up and joking around like normal, but something in his gut told him otherwise.

"Oh! Excuse me a moment guys...I'm getting a call," Lucy spoke up suddenly feeling her phone buzz in her pocket. "I'll just be a minute." And with that Lucy stepped out of the room, leaving Alex alone with his team.

The room went silent almost instantly, save for the occasional crunch and munch whenever Alex took a bite of his food. The four had been worried sick about their friend and teammate: first about his coma and now about his current state of mind. They knew first hand just how hard Alex had worked to get to his spot in the Hero Course. They knew he had to be in so much pain at the moment and they wanted to save him from it.

"How are you feeling Springfield?" Mezou asked gently as Alex finished off the last of his burger.

"I'm alive, what else can I say?" Alex responded promptly. He knew this was coming sooner or later; he just wasn't ready to admit it. He didn't cry when Eraserhead told him the news, and he refused to cry now. He didn't want to show just how powerless he felt at the moment.

"Springfield, you know that you can talk to us right?" Nejire said in worried voice, her normally bubbly cheer gone, as she had recovered from the laughter.

"There's nothing to talk about, I got the news and the decision has been made."

"Springfield..."

"How is everyone doing back at school?" Alex interrupted quickly, "Especially the juniors, h-how are they holding up?"

"Everyone is doing good from what we hear," Tamaki decided to answer. "They've been getting counseling from Hound Dog and no one suffered from any lasting injuries."

"Thank goodness," Alex said with some relief before finishing up the rest of his drink.

"Do you know when you'll be back?" Nejire questioned.

"Tomorrow. I'm getting discharged later today since they wanted to keep me in observation for the day, so I need to decide what I'm going to do next quickly, I can't go back to General Studies, since there is no room left. 3-A nor 3-B are not accepting third year transfers so I can't be traded out. Honestly it's looking like I have no choice but to drop out and go to a local public school."

"But can't you just stay in our homeroom class?" Mezou suggested. "Even with the situation being how it is, you're can still attend class with us."

"I could...but I don't want to." Alex flatly admitted looking down before he let out a sigh, "…It's too painful a reminder of what...I'll never have now," Another sigh, "I just can't stand of the idea that months from now...you'll all be graduating without me."

"Alex...you never know what could happen!" Mirio retorted putting his hand on the brunette's shoulder. "Your decision could be overturned! Have you seen social media lately? Several people were really angry with what they did to you."

"That's right Springfield!" Nejire exclaimed pulling out her phone to show him her feed. "Look they even got a hashtag for you! #Blink! and #SaveBlink have been trending a lot!"

"I heard that even the US ambassador got really pissed off about. But then again given all of the American Pros whose work in the country are still on hold, have clearly been putting a lot of extra work on her plate, I wouldn't be surprised," Tamaki added with a small smile.

"I don't care about this political nonsense that he's going on about." Mezou began saying, "but we," he motioned to everyone else on the team, "Will not abandon you. One way or another you will become a Hero alongside us."

"Guys…" Alex managed to say as he sharply inhaled and gritted his teeth. Feeling his eyes burn again as they threatened to let tears run down.

"It was a long shot to bring you back, but despite the odds you came back." Mirio began saying, "This just feels like another long shot, but that's why we're going to become heroes right? To make even the most hopeless of situations better. No matter what those nut jobs in the government say, because Alex you're a hero already."

The dam finally burst as Alex simply broke down crying as his team quickly wrapping him in a much needed hug.

_'I'm such an idiot! I counted myself out before even fighting back. They're right; one way or another I will become a Pro...I just need to find new way to do it.'_

Lucy returned shortly from her call, a bittersweet smile on her face. A new path had been opened but it came with a large cost.

* * *

The next day came quickly, as 1-A mildly celebrated Ryu's return and the news that Alex had been healed successfully. Otherwise it had been a rather normal day for everyone as they waited for the latter half the day for Hero training.

"So who is best girl?" Minoru asked slyly while sliding a suspiciously pink manga copy between the trio as they ate lunch together for the first time since the USJ. They had been catching up now that Ryu wasn't all hopped up on painkillers. Denki leaned forward curious about their friend's answer, he had a bet riding on it after all.

Ryu look paused thinking hard while looking down at the curry he had gotten from Lunch Rush. The manga had a rather large female cast with several candidates that could easily serve as an acceptable answer. Yet there was only one answer for him.

"Nodoka."

"Ah damn it!" Denki groaned while Minoru began cackling.

"What did I say?! Curvy and brainy!" Minoru bragged excited about his win against his blond friend.

"You disappoint me man," Denki admitted handing Minoru 500 Yen coin.

"Get bent Kaminari, I happen to find intelligence attractive...but I'll admit that having a nice figure doesn't hurt," Ryu added with a laugh. "I also have to admit that despite the manga being borderline porn, the story is surprising good...Which reminds me..._is there a sequel?_" He added with a whisper.

"Ten volumes in the series my friend," Minoru answered him back with a wink.

"Nice, I'll keep that in mind."

"Just saying Nodoka was kind of a bitch ya know?" Denki commented questioning his friend's taste in women.

"Dude she was confident and had a lot on her plate, plus she wasn't a tsudere like Mika, now she was just plain mean." Ryu retorted.

"Ooooh!" Mineta exclaimed. "Mika happens to be Kaminari's favorite."

"Dude really?" Ryu said with a smirk and a laugh; leaning back on his seat, "But...she can be so mean and excessive when it comes to beating up the main character!"

"Mika's is rough on the outside, but a total sweetheart inside." Denki replied confidently. "Any real man could handle the heat."

"Any real man shouldn't have to put with it."

"Best girl fight!" Minoru proclaimed.

"Best girl what now?" The trio heard a familiar voice question them making them freeze. As they turned to see Momo Yaoyorozu along with Kashiko and Kyouka standing next to their table with rather stern looking expressions on their faces.

"Kasei I get that it is your first day back, but this conversation seems more than a little inappropriate."

_'Shit…' _The trio thought in unison getting caught with their collective pants down.

In the meanwhile with those three getting scolded by their class president, Eijirou sat at a nearby lunch table with his friends. Now he was glad that Alex had been healed but he was still bummed out about the decision to strip him of his license while Mina had been trying to keep her own mind off the subject by chatting up with everyone else.

"So it is really your birthday next week Bakugou?" Mina asked excitedly to the ash blond teen.

"Yeah," Katsuki replied with a grin. He knew that Izuku had already sent him an initial list of ideas that he would read over and pick through later.

"Got any plans set up so far?" Eijirou asked.

"A whole goddamn list, including this all you can eat curry eating contest that they're hosting on the same day."

"I'd never heard of a restaurant setting up an all you can eat contest." Ochako commented with a puzzled tilt of her head.

"Oh yeah Uraraka you're from the countryside right?" Mina asked as she tried to remember Ochako's background.

"I believe it is a way several restaurants use to boost sales and excitement for their featured cuisines." Tenya answered promptly.

"My brother Natsuo is a huge fan of these types of events." Shouto added, knowing that no one else in the family would ever compete in such an event. "Particularly the ones that feature pancakes or Chinese food...even if he never wins them."

"The contest features a pretty good prize: the whole thing becomes free, plus you get to eat there free of charge for a month!" Izuku explained, holding up his phone, "I know that Kacchan loves spicy foods, and this "Magma Curry" is supposed to be the hottest curry on their menu."

"Oh Hell yeah! Bring it on!" Katsuki proclaimed. "Afterward we can do a bunch of other good stuff, like the arcade that is down the street that I still go to every now and then."

"That curry eating contest sounds manly as hell! I want to try it out!" Eijirou added throwing his hat into the ring. Meanwhile everyone else seemed more settled on the idea of simply watching the two entering the competition, all of them had a good laugh at the idea of watching the contest.

Then Mirio walked into the lunchroom, heading straight to their table.

"Oh good I found you guys!" He began saying to them, with almost everyone greeting him promptly. "I don't got much time, but I was asked to give these to you." He added as he pulled out four golden slips of paper and handed them to Izuku. The greenette looked puzzled until he read the printing; his eyes nearly popped out from their sockets.

"Wait, these are!"

"VIP tickets to a live showing of Animal buddies this weekend!" Mirio explained. "Alex got a hold of these to say thank you, since he didn't get the chance to do so after you had Eri heal him."

"Izuku I think Eri is going to flip when she find out!" Ochako said excitedly before facing Mirio. "How is Springfield doing right now?"

Mirio hissed a bit with a slight flinch. "Well, you see."

* * *

"I'm sorry it came down to this Mr. Springfield," Nezu said solemnly as the young man stood in front of him in his office with Eraserhead flanking his right side.

"No sir, I'm really grateful that you guys managed to pull this off for me," Alex answered back sincerely as gave the principal a bow. He was no longer wearing a standard UA uniform, instead he now wore a unique staff P.E. uniform; marking him as a training specialist. "It's not what I had hoped, but it is better than nothing, but at least I'll still get to have a little more fun here at UA with my trainees now, until I go back to the United States."

"Thank All Might when you next see him. He was the one who spoke to the American Ambassador to get you the recommended spot at R.I.I.H. Apparently she's both a fan of All Might and you," Nezu chuckled, "Plus it helps that she wanted to...and I quote_ 'Rub it in Representative Kimura's face,'_ when she gives her next speech at the Prime Minister's ball about six or so weeks from now."

"I think that I love my ambassador already." Alex said with a light chuckle still getting a feel for his new clothing. "She sounds like a class act."

Eraserhead spoke up, "I also appreciate the favor of helping me train these two up for the Sports festival along with some extra field training with the first years." He finished up by giving Alex a couple of files marked with the names Hitoshi Shinsou and Reiko Yanagi.

"So I got three weeks to get them ready huh?" Alex commented as he looked over the files on the two. "Interesting quirks I can play around with and test out."

"I want you to give them the same kind of hell that Mirio gave you when you became a liaison."

"I can I have access to site Omega?" Alex asked with an excited grin; Site Omega was only used for special training. Eraserhead looked to Nezu who simply shrugged.

"You may."

"YES! This is going to be fun!"

* * *

"The research I've gained from Overhaul's files proved useful; quirk-destroying bullets. A simple, but rather ingenious idea." The Doctor commented as he worked.

"**I didn't think you would be partial into looking into such a thing, given your lifelong devotion to the topic of quirks."**

"I personally have no intention of creating these bullets master, besides I'm missing a key ingredient needed to synthesize the formula and create the compound needed for the bullets, however it did give me an idea for a variation for these bullets that could still prove useful, but I would need a bit of time to make sure it could even work," The Doctor looked up from his tools,"Unless you say otherwise master."

There was a sharp hiss as the Doctor finished making the adjustments to his master's throne, making sure everything was in working order as was part of their daily routine. All For One stirred slightly as he could feel the doctor's thoughts, there was something else that was swirling within him, he couldn't read minds, but a combination of quirks that he had stolen made it much easier to sense certain thoughts when people were in his presence.

"**What else is on your mind my old friend?" **All For One said suddenly to his old servant. The Doctor paused what he was doing, All for One could feel the thoughts of the Doctor continued to swirl before settling into something akin to curiosity.

"I've been thinking about what you did during last meeting with the heirs master." He answered honestly, knowing that lying would only result in severe consequences. "If I may speak freely?"

"**You may."**

"Would you have really let Tomura die, if that defective prince had asked it of you?"

All For One gave out a dark chuckle that chilled the good doctor to the bone.

"**No." **He answered honestly. **"I've known for a long time that Tomura would always end up being my successor, his heart is filled with the right kind of malice that needed to be nurtured correctly to assume my ideals, however even I make mistakes my old friend. I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket, so I devise that all of the children who had been brought or born within these halls, would serve to make him stronger, smarter and more patient. Call it his own internship and if he failed he wouldn't have been worth it...but as you can see Tomura only thrived."**

"And yet you le-"

All For One cut him off,** "He is useful in several ways: crafty, resourceful and a great improviser. He isn't much of a planner however; no instead he builds on the situation around himself. An excellent skill, but a double-edged sword since he may not be able to predict the consequences of his actions until it is too late; especially with that deadly defect he was born with compared to his other brothers and sisters." **The eyeless man turned to The Doctor, **"If he had requested Tomura to be killed, I would have denied him, much like how I had stayed execution for some of the previous candidates like Himiko or Mimicry."**

"The girl I understand thanks to her blood being useful for my research," The doctor added with a nod. "And Mimicry has been very useful in with his role within the police. Yet...that boy, that prince, whenever I did his routine maintenance to make sure his body could handle multiple quirks, I could almost feel the blood lust bubbling just under the surface."

"**I'm afraid that is where you are wrong my good doctor," **All For One interjected**. "What you sense in him isn't blood lust; though I know it feels like it. No what you felt was his sheer willpower."**

"Willpower master?" The Doctor questioned with a look of confusion of his face.

"**Indeed, it is perhaps his greatest strength and his greatest flaw. The willpower to destroy everything I stand for, he cannot hide his truest desires from myself."**

"And yet you let him live?"

"**Indeed."**

"Why?"

Under his mask All for One grinned. **"Because he knows what will happen if he tries to make a move on me. When the time is right and the pieces are in place, he will no longer serve any use for me or Tomura and then you can have him. Turn him into a Noumu, or kill him for what he did to your grandson."**

"Tsubasa served his purpose, his wings went to the victor, I have no qualms about it master." The Doctor answered honestly.

"**No matter, when the time is right, I will steal all of his hopes, dreams and make sure that he learns his place as Tomura takes his rightful spot. Just like his father, the son wants to try to fly even higher than the sky. But just like Icarus, his wings will burn up in time for his folly to go where only the gods can reign."**

* * *

Tomura sat with a drink by his side and his portable game console in hand as a portal swirled open a few feet away from him revealing the Hero Killer Stain with Kurogiri.

"Shigaraki." Stain said promptly, eyeing his surroundings.

"Stain, been having more fun with the new information at your disposal?" Tomura smirked, "Along with the new toys we got you, you've making quite a bold new statement."

"Nothing has changed about my mission for I continue to purge this world of these damnable false heroes. However I'll admit my message gets across much better, by going after the worst of the worst." Stain said as he took his seat at the other end of the bar. Kurogiri quickly handed him a simple glass of water from behind the bar; knowing that the Hero Killer avoided alcohol.

"Speaking of which, I have another set of names thanks to my contacts in the police...and these people my friend have gotten away with crimes so well," he paused, "They never even made it to court." Tomura chuckled as he slid an envelope for Stain's next set of targets.

It was a simple yet brilliant idea Tomura had come up with when he had personally led the assault to rescue Stain from the cops almost a month ago. Once he learned that he was dealing with a radical fanatic, it wasn't hard to convince him to see his way.

The bait? Use his contacts within the cops to get these damning reports that never made it to the public. Add a couple special names with a fake police report and voila an independent hitman who is more than happy to do hits for free. Stain had already taken care of several witnesses of the small time heroes of both The Nursery Incident and The Master's last clash with All Might, given that both cases were sealed up tight due to concerns that they posed to national security.

So no one was none the wiser when these possible witnesses in the hero scene ended up dead in seemingly unrelated incidents or ended up being Stain's next targets.

Tomura had other small fries deal with any civilians or other key witnesses that needed to be taken of, "I'm afraid that particular pile has the most terrible case of a quirk marriage I have never seen!" Tomura exclaimed dramatically with a mad cackle, delighted when he could feel the anger begin to radiate off of Stain as he continued to scan through the reports. Mimicry had done well to find the rat within Kai Doumeki's inner circle that had been helping with these Pro-heroes who have been investigating Draco Knight's downfall.

"However I wouldn't worry about taking care of him just yet. You see there is the cop that helped him escape justice Stain, and I'm just going to make sure that when the time comes. You'll have free reign to judge that fake pro, as usual." Tomura finished up, as he quickly grabbed his drink to toast the man.

He needed to make up for his failure at the USJ. And Stain was his ace in the hole to get there. He would make sure that his brother's identity would remain secret just long enough so he could finally kill the bastard himself.

* * *

While Izuku and Inko were working out the plans of how they were going to attend the live showing. Ochako carried Eri into Izuku's bedroom ready to tuck her into bed. The three had decided to keep the weekend plans a surprise for the girl whom they wanted to continue this happier trend she was having.

Now that Eri's assessments were complete, Inko and All Might were looking for schools that could take her in, which would now include the chance of leaving Eri alone with strangers. Safe strangers of course like teachers and other kids, but strangers to her none the less. They also had an appointment with Eri's psychiatrist to address any concerns of having Eri imprint on the two teens might have. It was a lot of work.

But they were all determined to make it work.

"Mama," Eri sighed as she was tucked in.

"Yes honey?" Ochako quickly said as she gently brushed a bit of Eri's hair.

"Can you please keeping reading the story again?" She asked with a yawn.

Ochako smiled always happy to reread it. "No problem sweetie."

With a quick reach for the large brown book, she opened it up where the bookmarker held their spot. It had been a few days since they last read it, so she quickly re-read the last few pages to get an idea of where she was at.

"Oh this is a good part." She said to herself, before clearing her throat.

"_My good lady please I beg you to reconsider of what you are about to do!" The Prime Minister spoke beseeching Arianna who faced away from him. The Princess however remained undeterred in her decision._

"_Jin saved us all my good lord," She began saying as she walked away, "He is no demon, no matter what the people say."_

"_I understand my lady, but the people are afraid that the curse of Fafnir will only keep growing within him like it has done to those in the past." He retorted trying to wipe the sweat from his brow still chasing after her. _

"_And yet the Angel of Yggdrasil descended, the Angel of Miracles herself came down to save him when all hoped seemed lost. That must be a sign the Jin will not be like the others surely you must see that." Arianna continued before stopping by the entrance to the throne room. Beyond the great door was everyone in her party. Including Jin who was most likely being judged by those at court, now that the secret was out._

_Arianna needed to take responsibility for her role in this. "I will name Jin to be my personal Knight, and bestow all of the honors it comes with, and in time I pray that the people will no longer fear him. I pray that they will see him, not as the spawn of Fafnir, but as someone else, a hero for them all."_

_"Yet, he is also commonborn my lady, the nobles of the court will hate him, and common people will always find fear when the name Fafnir is spoken."_

_She turned to face the Minister and looked him right in the eyes. "Then I will turn the name they fear into one of hope," She paused as she remembered the legends of the guardians of the great tree. "When Jin is knighted he will be known hence forth as The Fafnir Knight."_

* * *

**Author's Commentary**

So! Yes for you fans of Alex. Alex will have his chance to become a Pro Hero. Only he will have to leave Japan and therefore will be making his exit out of this story. (For now) BUT fear not!

As _**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fields of Spring**_ will cover Alex's misadventures of his time training in the Untied States. It is almost the reverse of Draco Knight, as these chapters will take place in the future and will reveal some juicy details of what I have planned for future Arcs and Sagas. Alex will be in the story for a few chapters in the next Arc, but afterward you'll have to keep up with the new story to see where he goes.

*One million Yen: At the time of writing one million yen is about $9200~ US at the current exchange rate.

As usual at the end of every Arc, I can re-add this!

And that was the finale of Arc II speaking of which here is the complete list of Arcs for _**Saga I**_

_**Arc I: Origins Chapter I-XIII**_

_**Arc II: The Incident XV-XXVIII **_

_**Arc III: The Sports Festival XXX-?**_

_**Arc IV: Stained Hands ?-?**_

_**Arc V: The Calm before the Storm ?-?**_

_**Arc VI: **__****Ragnarok** ?-?**_

_**Arc VII: The Ephemeral Lands. XIV, XXIX,?,?,?,?-?**_

As you can see will be taking a short trip back into the _**Ephemeral Lands**_ in the next chapter. _**Chapter XXIX: Anger Part 1**_ will out around the middle of November, keep an eye out on my profile pages for updates!

That is all for now my dear readers. As always will lots of love.

_**-X**_


	29. Anger Part 1

As a quick reminder; these chapters will always be shorter than the main story chapters.  
There is no prize for solving the cryptograms this time. (Mostly because the prize was way more of a hassle than originally expected.)

I'm already hard at work on _**Chapter XXX**_ which I planned to filled with fun that is a promise. With _**Arc III**_ premiering in the next chapter I hope that my small break to allow me to plan out the smaller details makes the next Arc much easier to write (And hopefully with quicker updates) will very interesting how I plan to mix canon around.

* * *

**Reviews Responses**

Reviews for _**Chapter XXVIII**_ and recommendation will be covered in the next chapter.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc VII: The Ephemeral Lands **_

_**Chapter XXIX: Anger Part 1**_

* * *

"_**Anger is a manifestation of a deeper issue...and that, for me,**_

_**is based on insecurity, self-esteem and loneliness."**_

_**-Naomi Campbell**_

* * *

"_**Epvftsm'i ypvtj iovji vua tkngtjh vj tjopavta tj vjhap."***_

"_**Vj alnstnj skvs ti lnpa skvj vuupnuptvsa vs ska lnlajs tq mne vib la."**_

"_**Itp?"**_

"_**T'l inppm. Skti iknezw kvfa yaaj v stla qnp oazaypvstnj. Tjtsavw...ga'pa wavztjh gtsk skti...spmtjh sn ivfa lm qptajw'i ynm."**_

"_**Tjwaaw itp, yes yvoh sn ska untjs. Gkvs tknezw ga wn vynes skti?"**_

"_**Pjztba Typyp, ga ovjjns vwltjtisap ska iawvstfa sn ska lvtj knis vi skvs onezw ypavb ska lajsvz ztjb vjw onjjaostnj ga gvfa lvjvhaw sn aisvyztik yasgaaj skal. Jn ga gtzz itluzm kvfa sn speis skvs Epvftsm'i vfvsvp gtzz ya vyza sn hetwa kap vjw ovzl kap wngj."**_

"_**Gkvs tq kap alnstnji zavb tjsn Ltwnptzv'i ltjw? Lajsvz onjsvltjvsvnj onezw ya wtivispnet."**_  
_**  
"Ts onezw ya, ga pavzzm kvfa jn gvm nq bjngtjh skvs xeis mas. Kngafap tq skatp pazvstnjiktu pavzzm ti skvs waau, skaj ts skti lthks vospvzzm upnfa yajaqtotvz. Njzm stla gtzz spezm sazz in qnp jng; ga itluzm kvfa sn palvtj fthtzvjs."**_

* * *

The climb had been long, as the two daughters of the mark continued to make their way up the trunk of Yggdrasil. Ochako and Arianna proved to be quite adept in working together; Ochako would use her quirk to get through particular jumps between the branches of the tree while Arianna would use a combination of her whip and magic to clear the way of debris. Yet no matter how high they continued to climb it seemed like they couldn't reach where the tree trunk went past the clouds. Ochako began to felt drained, with the continued use of her quirk; alongside the little progress the two had made and Ochako couldn't help but feel anger slowly building up.

The two companions hadn't spoken much. After all they were more focused on trying to find their respective loves in these lands. Still, the two stopped atop one of the larger branches where they had plenty of room to walk around in, Ochako started to lean tiredly against the trunk tired as she looked around where they were at. From up here she could see the valley that spread as far as the eye could see; it looked like a great green sea.

It would have been a beautiful sight that, under normal circumstances, Ochako would have appreciated but right now all she wanted was to finish this grueling trial. To find him and go back home, back to everyone else who was waiting for them.

"We should take a rest," Ochako heard Arianna's suggestion and was ready to protest until she saw the look that was upon her companion's face. It was a mirror of her own, as Ochako clearly saw the same kind of frustration that plagued her now. Only Arianna had waited centuries while Ochako only needed to wait a few days before making this journey. Yet she was the one who kept a cooler head and suggested a rational course of action.

"Okay," Ochako managed to sigh out as she slowly allowed herself to slide down the trunk she was leaning against until she found herself sitting slumped. She stole a glance at her purple haired companion who simply remained standing; looking outward surveying the lands far below and the still setting sun. She could see her small hands were balled into fists and her whole body was shaking.

_'Arianna...' _Of course Arianna would understand better than anyone. Given all of the times Ochako had reread her journey that was filled of love and yet so much heartbreak. She was a kind, gentle soul who hated violence but would never hesitate to fight when it came to protecting those she loved or felt responsible for. That was the duty she was born with as a future ruler of a duchy. All of the sacrifices she made despite her deepest desires.

So it was no wonder that Ochako sees her like a role model, Arianna was a hero in her own right even if Jin was considered the main protagonist. Jin would have never gotten far without her and everyone else in the party. Jin was her knight...much like Izuku was hers.

"Izuku...where are you?" She said to herself as she felt tears welling up, before looking upon the mark on her right hand. That tiny cross shaped flower made her smile upon seeing it, reminding her of so many memories from their confession to each other, to learning the truth about their shared past. The day he decided to take on his hero name, _Fafnir Knight,_ all because of her and Eri. Their first date and their first kiss. All of those sweet memories they made in such a short amount of time...as if to make up for all of the time they believe to have lost.

Yet this mark also served to remind her of her follies.

"If only I hadn't been a coward." She said bitterly to herself shaking her head trying her best not to sob. "I could have stopped it all, if I had just acted sooner! If I just wasn't a total coward, none of this would have happened."

She took in sharp deep breaths and squeezed her hands as the memories of that night, that horrible night that played on repeat in her nightmares but are now filling her mind right then and there. That night when everything changed when all hell broke loose. The night the traitor revealed his true colors and betrayed them all.

"**Stop blaming yourself girl." **A voice called out to her, making Ochako look up, only now she found her herself in empty dark space. No longer on Yggdrasil, and her only company was a tall man cloaked in shadow standing before her.

* * *

"_**Lajsvz onjsvltjvsvnj kvi yaaj wasaisaw! Njzm ska pavwtjhi vpa ikngtjh inlssktjh ispvjha! Ga lvm kvfa sn uezz vj alaphajom isnu sn ska upnoawepa! "**_

"_**Wazvm skvs! Gkvs advoszm ti hntjg nh?!"  
**_

"_**Ts'i Ltwnptzv! Ksi ltjw ti onjsvltjvstjh Epvftsm'i! Jns ska nskap gvm vpnejw! "  
**_

"_**Ti ka pavoktjh nes qnp kap?! Znnb vs ska okvps! Iaa gktok uvps nq Typyp'i ypvtj ti vostfa."**_

"_**Gvts, tij's skvs?"  
**_

"_**Mai, ska ieiuaosaw onpsad nq ska ypvtj skvs ti ivtw sn pahpzvsa cetpbi...vjw znnb afaj jng ka'i hzngtjh afap in qvtjszm."  
**_

"_**Gkvs wnai skti lavj?"**_

"_**T'l jns iepa...yes qnp jng ga gvts vjw iaa, jepia! Ya pavwm sn vwltjtisap vjnskap tkns sn Typyp tq jaawaw!"**_

"_**Itp shapa ti inlasktjh azia. Ts mnnbi ztba Epvftsm ts...izaautjh."  
**_

"_**Zas la iaa sknta pavwtjhi...onpzw ti ya...v wpavl gtsktj v wpavl?"**_

"_**Ti skvs afaj uniityza?"  
**_

"_**Ga'pa iaatjh ts kvuuaj pthks yaqnpa nep amai." **_

* * *

Ochako didn't know what to say as the strange man stood before her. As the shadow that cloaked the tall man slowly began to part, a tall man with dark hair, wearing some kind of hero costume was revealed before her. It reminded her of Best Jeanist, but the outfit didn't appear to be made of denim nor did it look like jeans. He looked annoyed and his tone of voice was very cold.

"**Stop blaming yourself girl." **The man repeated to her. **"I swear you and my successor were meant for each other in more than one way." **

Ochako rose up slowly, despite his tone he didn't appear or feel hostile. Rude yes, but not hostile which only served to confuse Ochako with several questions starting to pop into her head. Perhaps the most pressing of them finally made her say something.

"Who are you?"

**"One of the Nine." **He answered with narrowed eyes. **"My name has long since been forgotten. For now just call me Six."**

"Okay then Six...what do you mean by _'You and my successor were meant for each other in more than one way?'_"

Six gave her a rare deep chuckle. **"Who else? The one you are looking for of course."**

"Izuku…" Ochako answered almost breathlessly.

"**Indeed."**

"How do you kn-"

**"That's not important right now child." **He interrupted, **"Time is limited and I'm simply here to serve as a messenger for you. The message is simple. **_**Stop blaming yourself.**_** There were others who had the chance to act. Even my successor has regrets about that night. You are not alone in these feelings." **

Ochako looked surprised.

"Izuku really feels the same way?"

"**He knew given everything that happened, the circumstances and the revelations that came with it. He knew he could have handled it better."**

"But-"

"**If you truly feel like you must atone, then get up and find him...he is closer than you think, do not allow anger and regret to cloud your way. Lest you become like me." **His voice slowly became less cold, and much more somber. The look of regret was clear even on his partially hidden face. **"Now I will give you another message, this one is from me to you directly. Trust in yourself child. Trust in yourself to find the way and remember that even now you are not alone and neither is Izuku." **

Ochako didn't know what to say to this mysterious stranger who called himself Six. Yet despite never meeting him before there was something about him that seemed familiar. Strength perhaps, it was even in his voice despite sounding so cold and almost indifferent; there was a hidden warmth and a message of hope. Not unlike a certain hero and certainly not unlike her knight.

Ochako could feel the anger leaving her as a renewed sense of strength and purpose took its place, "Thank you...Six."

"**Thank me, by finding him." **The man answered as the shadowy dark slowly began cloak around him once again to disappear back into the darkness, leaving Ochako standing there for a moment or two.

_"Ochako. Wake up." _

Ochako looked around hearing that familiar voice, she looked around the darkness for the source. She needed to leave and get back to the task at hand. She felt renewed with that conversation and needed to get back to work quickly.

_"Ochako! Please wake up!"  
_

Suddenly Ochako felt a jolt rundown her body as hands grasped her shoulders. With a few drowsy blinks she found herself back upon Yggdrasil, sitting against the trunk of the great tree as if she had never moved. Arianna was kneeling in front of her with a worried look on her face.

"Thank goodness! You had me scared for a moment!" She cried out with a sigh of relief. Ochako laughed a bit nervously resulting in her starting to scratch the back of her head out of habit.

"I-I'm sorry Arianna!" She breathed out sincerely, bowing her head.

The princess sighed again putting her hands to her chest, managing to give her companion a warm smile, "I'm just glad it wasn't anything serious, I've seen the results of those who go mad when they were left alone, without hope and full of despair."

Ochako's remembered Arianna's journey into Yggdrasil in the story book. The amount of dead adventurers that her party alone had found numbered in the hundreds. Often finding notes of regret or told tales of their descent into madness yet she knew that was why Arianna was here for her; to keep her steady and moving forward. Ochako responded by getting up and raised the princess up with her.

"Thank you Arianna," She said to her childhood idol, "Sorry for my moment of weakness."

Arianna shook her head and grabbed her hand. "It's okay to have moments of weakness especially when you feel lost. It's okay to want to rest and collect yourself when you feel like the world is collapsing all around you. It's letting the weakness stop you from moving forward is when it becomes a problem."

"Something you know all too well right?" Ochako said with a shy smile, the final battle that Arianna took part in near the end of her tale did indeed place the weight of her whole world on her shoulders. The guilt that she must have felt when Jin took her place for the ritual and completed his the task as a Knight of Fafnir and breaking the curse of her lands forever.

"It was my friends that kept me going when Jin disappeared into the light..." She spoke softly, it hurt Ochako to see that painful expression on her face. Ochako gave the girl a hug knowing that feeling all to well now. Yet there was hope now, a chance to rewrite and add more to the story of what it means to be a Knight of Fafnir.

"We're going to find them." She said firmly, once she broke off the hug, she began guiding her friend back to the trunk. They had a tree to continue climbing and knights to find.

* * *

"_**Ltwnptzv'i ypvtj kvi hnja yvob sn jnplvz uvssapji...Tknezw ga onjstjea?"**_

"_**Vlvytjh. Uzavia lvba iepa sn ivfa sbvs sn paonpw. Tjwaaw ga iknezw, afapmsktjh ti vuuavptjh sn ya yvob sn aduaosaw zafazi. Ga vpa onjstjetjh ska nuapvstnj."**_

"_**Ejwapisnnw itp"**_

* * *

The duo of Izuku and Jin sat nervously across from each other on one of the branches of Yggdrasil. Jin had barely managed to pull Izuku up from nearly falling down the great tree. Izuku didn't know why that vision he had seen compelled him to nearly walk off the edge, but he was glad that Jin had managed to pull him out before it was too late.

"Thank you my friend." Izuku said gratefully as he wiped the sweat ran down his brow with his clawed right hand.

"No problem...but I have to ask...what exactly happened to you?" Jin managed to breath out still trembling from the experience.

"I saw people...ten people, eight cloaked in shadow." Izuku began saying trying to recollect his thoughts on what he had just experienced. The first eight people were all covered in shadow, repeating the same few words, beckoning to come forward.

_'Remember.' _All eight continued to say, until a portal opened up between the eight and revealed two young women climbing up the great tree. One of them was what made Izuku reach out for her, until he almost fell off of the edge of the branch.

"And two others...those two I could see as clear as day...and both looked really beautiful." He confessed with a red face especially after seeing the brunette.

"Beautiful?" Jin questioned, as Izuku began to describe the two he saw.

"One was short with long purple hair and eyes, she looked very kind and the other was taller with chocolate brown hair and eyes..."

There was a brief pause.

"Arianna/Ochako." The two boys said in unison both of them finally linking some details together, eyes widening. Jin almost lunged at Izuku, placing his hands on his friend's shoulders with excitement.

"Where did you see her?! Did you really see Arianna!? Please tell me my friend!"

"I saw them here! On Yggdrasil!" Izuku admitted remembering that the two were on a branch similar that they were on. "Wait could that be the reason why we're here?!"

"Only the Knights of Fafnir and their markers can be here." Jin answered as he was trying to place the pieces together. "Arianna is my marker, and given how you are towards Ochako, I have no doubt now that she is yours and if they're both here on Yggdrasil."

"This could explain why we came here...to find them! They might be further up the tree!"

Izuku was happy as he finally remembered the face to the name, the girl he saw in his vision he knew that was Ochako, of that he had no doubt. Some of the details of why she made him feel so happy still seemed fuzzy and blurry, but given that Izuku kept remembering more and more about her as they continued to climb. It only served to jump start his drive to see her again. To learn more about her and remember again if she was really here waiting for them.

There was no time to lose.

"What are we waiting for Jin? Let's go!"

* * *

**Author's notes**

The cryptograms were fun, but also a pain to create and do. (Yes I did it by hand because yes that is how I roll.)

Can you solve the mystery of the messages?

Your clue today is going to be an easy one.

*(V= A) General rules to normal sentences apply. Capital letters are still capital in their hidden words, punctuation marks are part of the sentence and do not hide anything.

Like I said before these chapters are short, brief and to the point. I also figured out how I'm going to reveal what the cryptograms are decoded when we reach Arc VII proper to finish up the Saga.

Also! Have you ever wondered about the game that helped inspire the story? Well I was recently reminded that the game as an anime style featured opening that is on Youtube! (This is an ATLUS RPG)

I have added the link on my FFN profile if you simply wanted to glance at the game that helped inspire this story. (And get to see certain elements I used for this story. You'll get to see both Arianna and Jin in it as well.)

(AO3 users link is here! - )

The next chapter is becoming up nicely.

Spoiler alert: Eri may make a friend or two and a ship sails.

_**Chapter XXX: Training begins! **_Will be out as soon as possible.


	30. Training Begins!

Sorry for the wait people! I had to rewrite this chapter because the original version's introduction dragged on. This version feels more in line to how I wanted to relay the important details.

In addition, this story was supposed to contain a Bonus Short Story that contained the first romantic ship in this story to sail, but after looking over the length of this chapter (12K without author's notes.) It only dragged on, so I have decided to release this bonus chapter as standalone bonus chapter in the next few days. In addition, I plan to delete the KyoAni update from the chapter list, so FFN fans may get an update alert in the next few days with no content.

However the bonus chapter will be released shortly after the KyoAni update deletion.

I hope you enjoy the premier of Arc III, as we have quite a bit of set-up to do before we reach the main event that is The Sports Festival! So expect a bit more build up for friendship, love and some heartbreak. This Arc is going have its ups and downs, with some twists AND TURNS that I while I do hope to foreshadow, I hope no one sees coming until its too late.

* * *

**Reviews Responses**(Chapter 28)

_**Patrickthenobleman: **_Yes indeed he has; I firmly believe that you can make an antagonist much stronger, by making them much more intelligent. However giving him a few extra quirks didn't hurt either, as we will see in the future. And I have some interesting plans regarding the MLA when it comes to their future appearance in this story.

_**Kerlongsj Evert Orlejov:**_ Well I'm not sure what you mean. It was always my plan to write Alex out of the story this way, I mentioned before that once OC's have finished their roles in the story that they will either be written out or simply be placed in the background. For Izuku and Ochako regarding Eri, we already saw them acting like parents earlier, it made sense for them not make things be more complicated than it needed to be. Haha! Just wait I do have something interesting in store for Denki and Minoru when the time comes. And Katsuki will get some interesting development in this Arc especially. I won't say much for Ryu for this Arc, all I can say is...it should be interesting. Thankfully regarding OC's there will be reduction in their use for this Arc, since they aren't needed much for the Sports Festival.

_**D3lph0xL0v3r: **_So you no longer have that same hate for Ryu like you use to have when we first met him? Hahaha.

_**Xekless: **_It is something to consider for Eri's future once she gets a better hang and control of her quirk.

_**ProjectIceman: **_No my friend! I can't spoil the story now? Now I have share a few minor spoilers around here and there, for one reason or another, but I can't really spoil anything too critical now can't I? So yes, Alex will get his chance to be a Hero in the US, doing the opposite of what Captain Celebrity did in the Vigilantes series. And yes, Tomura Shigaraki is still the current Central Antagonist, much like Izuku is the Central Protagonist, the story is still a heavily remixed retelling after all.

_**Ooobserver:**_ I did want the two cinnamon rolls to be a tad bit more mature while still being teens, being a Pro-Hero in the future is no joke after all, but they still have their doubts which is fair for teens their ages to have.

Ryu's story is one of mirrors, (Who's mirror is the key question) And funny enough, no one has noticed that Ryu and Izuku have yet to have a single conversation or interaction together. Why is that I wonder? (Some readers would know why) And with Alex yes you are correct, you can say that this story does involve breaking down characters to build them back up to become even stronger. A good chunk of everyone in this story will have their moment for this kind of development.

_**Moonstar31548: **_Well let's just say it won't be completely smooth sailing for the trio, after all they're teens still learning to grow up themselves. In the case of Ryu, I do try to give these characters even OC's a chance to be more complex characters; especially compared to his initial introduction. Finally All for One couldn't have gotten where he is at in life, without being cloak and dagger about many things.

_**Jetstar77: **_I'm always surprised to see when someone mentions that an OC has become a favorite character. I know Alex is still my most popular OC by far, but I also know that Ryu has also gained a small measure of fans, but I didn't expect Saya to get a fan. (Actually I never expected any of my OC's to be anyone's favorite) We will be seeing how Saya and others slowly bleed into Ryu's development and how this shapes his actions when the time comes, but yes this is meant to showcase the complexity of this story and why you cannot completely rely on canon to see where this story is going. Politics is important for this story, just like it is in canon, only I want to tell this story from all walks of life.

Alex's days in this story are marked and will only be here for a few more chapters, which does mean he will miss the Prime Minister's ball, but! That isn't to say that the ball won't be important later down the line for different reasons and different characters. In addition yes I'm glad that people like what I'm going with Minoru's development. I found that my general issue with the little guy isn't him being a pervert, (Since I actually like a number of anime perverts) it's how his character has been used. Almost completely for comedic relief but done rather poorly or in unnecessary moments. I found that toning him down and instead refocusing him on doing the best he can despite his height and general strength, while giving him like awkwardness and more human speaking lines with females was enough for now.

For the villains, lets just say I got plenty in store for them. Also one quick thing, the part you quoted from All for One doesn't refer to Tomura, but his brother the defective prince. And finally yes, I am constructing the parallels of the storybook with moments in the main story. It's quite fitting to say the least.

* * *

**Recommendation**

Today's recommendation goes to!

_**Twisted Nightmares**_ by _**Metropolice**_!

This is an interesting story that stars Minoru Mineta in a rather interesting and almost heartbreaking twists and turns, with a companion of the Izuocha sub-plot. I love that this story does what I'm trying to do with Minoru Mineta and give the lad a chance to be a much better character with an interesting spin. I do believe this is an FFN exclusive but I strongly recommend checking it out.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk**_

_**Arc III: The Sports Festival**_

_**Chapter XXX:Training Begins!**_

* * *

_** "The bonding of the team is exceptionally important and trying to create a good team spirit and to have some fun."**_

_**-Sam Allardyce**_

* * *

Hajime sat in his office with his phone to his ear; it was still ringing. He had just gotten out of a massive meeting of the Police Commission and several of the highest ranking officers in the Nation. No longer was he the simple junior detective that once handed the files that sealed Draco Knight's fate. He was now a captain and adjutant to Kai Doumeki, yet he has another role to play in current events.

"_Go ahead Tanaka,"_ He heard the voice of Tensei Iida answer.

"I just got out of that meeting I told you about." Hajime begin saying, after making sure that no one was listening in. "I'm sure that Kiriyuuin will fill you in on the broader details at the meeting tomorrow, but I'll tell you the stuff that I know he would have no knowledge of right now."

He could hear Tensei fiddle around with some equipment; likely to record the call.

"_I'm ready."_

"Okay but mind you that some things are not completely in the clear, so things are subject to change."

"_Understood." _

"First: The Noumu, that thing from the USJ. The commission had a DNA test done on it and the results were…strange to say the least."

_"How so?" _

"Multiple strains of DNA were found...so many in fact that the commission has ordered another test just to verify that it wasn't mistaken due to contamination or on the off chance the sample had been tampered with."

"_Interesting...but I feel like there is something else here?"_

"Well here is the thing. Do you remember when I told you that Doumeki ordered an internal affairs investigation after the whole Stain fiasco?"

"_Yes, you and several others helped in the investigation along with Kiriyuuin himself."_

"When internal affairs started the investigation, I was assigned to help look into cases that happened before I was transferred to Doumeki's department ten years ago while the cases I was personally involved in since, were then handled by other officers as per protocol," Hajime briefly grimaced, "Anyway when I began my assignment with internal affairs I came across a case that I didn't think much of at the time." He eyed the door, "until some of the names that came up during the first round of DNA testing appeared and recognized them from that case; from an incident that happened thirteen years ago." He let out a brief breath of hestiation, "a real big one."

_"What case?"_

"It was under the code name _**The Nursery Incident **_and it was under an extreme amount of security regulations." He tapped his desk with his fingers, "I mean it was for the kind of stuff that saved for issues regarding National Security and there's this thing that makes me think why this could be a huge breakthrough if I'm right."

"_What?"_

"It's a small detail but it made me pause when I read the USJ incident report and the initial results of the test. Now, _**The Nursery Incident**_ involved a large amount of missing children; kidnappings mostly. But there was also some evidence of human tracking, experimentation and..." He grimaced again, "even genetic engineering. The police at the time managed to discover evidence of all these crimes in order to produce the warrants needed to raid the laboratory where some of the missing children were said to have been held, but I digress."

"Now," He leaned forward in his seat, "You see the key detail that was hidden from the public yet it matches all of those children as the one thing they all shared in common." There was some trepidation, "all of them had either blood red or golden yellow eyes."

"_Another thing to consider would be this supposed bounty on the students at the USJ with golden-yellow eyes and then you add the genetic engineering..."_

"Indeed...here is another key detail about _The Nursery Incident_, Draco Knight was involved as the Hero-in-Command and served as the vanguard during the initial start of the operation with Doumeki serving as the SWAT commander."

"_Wait Draco Knight was involved in this? With Doumeki?"_

"Yeah, the operation was going smoothly until a rather infamous villain made his appearance on the battlefield. The Phoenix King, as they called him; arrived on the scene with several underlings and blew up the laboratory that contained the trapped children."

"_Oh god...I remember that name...He was Endeavor's mortal enemy given his quirk's ability to absorb fire and had incredible regenerative abilities. I heard he had died thirteen years ago...is that the case that ended his life?" _

_'Given that Draco Knight literally ripped out the man's still beating heart would have been enough to stop even the most powerful of regeneration quirks available. Not to mention the incineration...' _Hajime thought to himself before answering with.

"Yes, it caused a massive shit storm and honestly, the only odd thing about the incident to me was the Operational Code, it started out as Order One; the objective was to save all of the children and capture any villains." He flicked up a finger, "But it got upgraded to Order Zero _-post mission_. I know from the incident report that Draco Knight personally killed The Phoenix King, when the objective should have been his capture."

"_Wouldn't that have placed Draco Knight under sanctions? A big case like that failing should have been grounds to strip the man of his license."_

"The report mentioned that and Draco Knight was heavily considered to be taken up to the Board of Heroics, especially since there was concerns regarding his mental health according to the reports. Yet that changed when Doumeki himself ordered the upgrade and basically took the fall for the operation as soon as he recovered from major surgery from wounds sustained during the op."

"_Wait, that doesn't make any sense! As far as I know Doumeki had always hated Draco Knight even when I interned in the Drake's Den. I was always told that should the man appear; let Draco Knight handle it personally."_

"I'm going to do some more digging here...I'm wondering if I could try to convince Doumeki to allow me back into the archives, my security clearance for those files should still be green. But it's best not to act on this information just yet..." He added as he looked down at three files front of him, "I still feel like there some off about everything and I'd rather have all of my cards on the table so we can do this clean."

"_Makes sense...thanks a lot for the information Tanaka."_

"One last thing Iida...Kiriyuuin should know this too. He won't know when it'll happen, but our department has been tasked with transporting Overhaul to Tartarus next Saturday. Doumeki himself is personally leading the operation on the field."

"_He's taking command personally?"_

"Yes sir, I think he personally feels guilty over the loss of some of my fellow officers during the Stain escape and believes this is his way of making the others on staff feel better about heading out on an assignment like this again."

_"I see...anything else?"_

"Nothing else that wouldn't be repeating previously known information, otherwise Kiriyuuin will go into more detail of what exactly was discussed at the meeting."

"_Very well, thank you Tanaka and I wish you good luck on the transportation assignment."_

"Thanks, best wishes to you as well." Hajime finished up as hung up his cellphone. He leaned against his seat for a moment before looking at the three files on his desk once again; reading the names attached to them. They were of the remaining suspects from the initial investigation, with the females and Vlad King being dropped from the case upon further inquiries.

_**Denki Kaminari**_

_**Ryu Kasei**_

_**Shino Mizuoji**_

He wasn't sure what exactly Kaoru Kiriyuuin was going to share with the group tomorrow, the details about what is happening with the remains of the Eight Precepts of Death doesn't seem important to their case, but one never really knows.

No matter what however, Principal Nezu was sure to be informed that three students had passed background checks that should have raised some serious red flags.

_**The First is the son of infamous villain.**_

_**The Second is the bastard son of a dead corrupt politician in addition to being the adopted son of his own boss.**_

_**The Third is a well-connected socialite with several familial ties to the Neocons.**_

_'One or more of these three could be either spies or simply the targets of an assassination due to their ties,' _Hajime thought to himself, _'Is there really a connection with any of them and the incident thirteen years ago? _Then there was their ages to be considered as a factor in play.

_**Fifteen**_

_**Sixteen**_

_**Fourteen**_

None of the children could have been older than two or three given vague date of the operation, while all of the children who were said to have been held up were no younger than four and no older than seven, the common time range that quirks manifested. Not to mention that none of three had been listed among those kidnapped and recovered.

_**The Nursery Incident.**_

What was the connection? He was almost one-hundred percent sure that there was a connection to the USJ Incident and by extension to this new League of Villains, but all of the evidence was circumstantial at best. Depending on what information Tensei would give him after the meeting, he might be able to make a more thorough investigation instead of searching blindly in the dark.

Outside his office he heard a loud rumbling that snapped him out of his thoughts. He sighed with some frustration as he decided to make his exit out of his office and see what was going on just outside his was met with loud roars of laughter the moment he opened it and he spotted one of the newer recruits, Ganji, performing one of his infamous acts for everyone using his quirk.

"And then the boss goes like, _**'I'll accept the task and lead the operation personally.'**_" The man mimicked Kai's voice_ -and face with a pout,_ perfectly. "You should have seen the faces of all the old farts on the commission."

That tidbit made all of other junior officers keep on laughing with some doubled over at their desks with tears rolling down some faces.

That was until Hajime cleared his throat loud enough that made the room go silent instantly.

"Haha- Oh shi-" The recruit nearly tripped over as he straightened into a salute, "Captain! Haha hello there!" Ganji began saying nervously as turned to spot his superior standing behind him with an annoyed look on his face.

"Nishimoto do you have that report on traffic plans for next Saturday?" Hajimed asked with narrowed eyes.

"A-almost done sir!" The man flustered out, his blood red eyes looked around the room as several of the now stone faced officers before looking away awkwardly.

"Then finish it and have it on my desk by fourteen hundred hours, or I could invite The Chief-Superintendent to come and see your next performance. I'm sure he would find it just as amusing as everyone else here."

"On it sir!"

* * *

Izuku sat happily on the observation room with his notebook out; finally getting a chance to see his classmates' quirks in real time action without any disturbances. Midnight called for today to be a "free-training day" allowing access for the teams to try out fun activities such as trying out some of the various obstacle courses, sparring, and general practice in using their quirks or trying out some of their alternate support gear.

"Having fun Midoriya?" Izuku heard Kashiko ask as she took the seat next to him to observe everyone else as well.

"Yep, I've always been fascinated by quirks," he smiled as he wrote down another note, "Mostly because I really wanted to be a hero myself, but the subject of quirks itself has always been interesting to me." Izuku answered earnestly with an excited look on his face.

"I think quirkologists missed out on having a mind like yours," Kashiko said playfully.

"Maybe if I was born quirkless that could have been a career path I would have taken then," Izuku retorted before realizing that Kashiko was actually there talking with him, instead of being with her team. "Hey Sekigai, not that I mind you being here, but shouldn't you train with your team?"

"Am I being a bother?" Kashiko questioned with a glare.

"N-no! I mean its ju-" Izuku's response was cut off by Kashiko giggling.

"Hehe I'm kidding Midoriya relax! No," Kashiko began saying while fiddling with some of the camera control modules, "Uraraka is clearly having more fun racing against Ashido."

The display showed the two heroes-in-training as they worked hard to jump, climb and charge through a series of obstacles in their way. Izuku sat there amazed at Ochako and Mina applying their quirks to get through some of the same challenges differently yet efficiently.

Kashiko could see Izuku focusing on the two, although there was an extra glance thrown Ochako's way every now and then.

Maybe she was a bit jealous of Ochako. Now she didn't have a thing for Izuku but it wouldn't hurt for her to have an admirer like Izuku is to Ochako. Despite her conversation with most of the girls during the beginning of the year, it wasn't like she was completely disinterested in dating; more like she was afraid that it could interfere with her studies, given the various horror stories she'd heard about from both the rumor mill and online.

Yet seeing how these two acted with each other made almost everyone in the class "ship it" as Mina would say.

"Satou is doing some strength training with Kirishima, Bakugou and Ojirou." She continued changing the displays again. Noting that Izuku looked ever so slightly disappointed when it did. "While Kasei is in the support department getting refitted with a costume upgrade last I heard and Aoyama..."

The last change of display was of Yuga practicing with his laser piercing through thick stone walls staring into a portable mirror all the while. "…Is being Aoyama."

Izuku chuckled uneasily.

"In any case, since my quirk doubles as an analyzer for quirks, this is actually the perfect place for me to practice using its other features." She finished up with small glow of blue appearing over her eyes.

"Oh your quirk is like a Sensor Chart right?" Izuku questioned flipping to the pages where he had the information he managed to get on Kashiko and her quirk.

"Indeed," she answered with a small nod, "Like Ragdoll's Search quirk, my quirk can eventually pick up small details of individuals I've encountered, including possible weaknesses."

"That's so cool and incredibly useful in a support role! I knew from back in the battle trial that your quirk could create those 2-D and 3-D charts that could tag people on the field," He lowered the notebook, "but the fact it also performs an analysis on quirks or on an individual's weaknesses is just beyond cool!"

"You really think so?" Kashiko questioned with a slight blush; surprised that her quirk would get such praise given Izuku's rather high pedigree quirk.

"Yeah but is that how you got through the robots at the entrance exam?" Izuku asked as he added additional notes to his notebook.

"Yes, I used my quirk to map out the area and isolate my targets efficiently and then I discovered that each robot had a built in weakness* that I think was meant to give candidates like me a chance at passing," Kashiko said cheerfully. "Still I got some rescue points for helping others who fell during the Zero Pointer attack."

In truth she had come here to get over some of her nervousness of Izuku. Discovering that he was Draco Knight's son and seeing his power first hand during the USJ Incident made her more than a little skittish around the greenette, even if she was good hiding it compared to others.

In the end it was a combination of Tenya's speech after the incident and Izuku's commitment to Eri that made her a little more open to the idea that there was more to Izuku than what some in the media wanted to present and it convinced her to seek Izuku out in private the first chance she got.

"If that's the case then could you help me improve my notes with some of the things you found Sekigai?" Izuku asked switching back the display to Ochako's and Mina's race. Judging from the reactions from some of the others Ochako had won.

_'This may be a great way for me to possible get an edge at the Sport's Festival.' _Kashiko thought to herself as her eyes began to glow.

"Sure thing!"

* * *

_'This must be really uncomfortable for him.'_

Tenya thought to himself as he saw Ryu getting a pat down from Mei Hatsume with a his mouth was closed, but he could see that Ryu was gritting his teeth. While he and Shouto, who were already used to Mei's antics; sat nearby waiting for their own turns to have their liaison go through them for costume modifications.

Still, as the newly elected vice president of Class 1-A he felt the need to say something to ease his classmate's comfort levels.

"Hatsume, couldn't you just learn to take measurements the right way?"

Mei stopped feeling up the boy for a moment to look at her childhood friend and favorite crash test dummy and answered with, "but this method is way better to get a real feel for the baby," she patted one of Ryu's pecs, "I'm going to be making for Mr. Dragon here."

"MAKING WHAT NOW?!" Ryu screamed before hopping way from girl's reach while instinctively guarding his crotch; forcing Shouto look away from the scene in order to stop himself from laughing at fire-eater's reaction.

"The term 'Babies' is her way of addressing her inventions Kasei," Shouto managed to say with a straight face upon recovering.

"THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT BETTER!"

"Yep, and since I'm going to be making a brand new costume baby from scratch based on your old one,so Momma here needs a proper feel." Mei chirped with a large grin and hands that held out to continue the pat down without a care.

Ryu looked at Mei before turning to Tenya, "Can I get someone else to do this to me please?"

"I'm afraid Hatsume is our only liaison," Tenya admitted flatly, "So no." then he pushed up his glasses.

"Oh come on Mr. Dragon!"

"Stop calling me that!"

"It's no big deal, besides you're not as muscly and fun as Teni so I was almost done with you anyway."

Tenya felt his face begin to burn as Ryu looked at him again with a questioning gaze.

The expression on the fire-eater's face looked like he wasn't sure if he should have felt relieved or insulted by Mei's comment.

"_Teni?"_ He mouthed to his vice president.

"Look it's no big deal, watch." She turned from Ryu and ordered, "Hey Shou! Assume the position!"

Shouto promptly stood up and raised his arms straight up remaining parallel to his sides.

Mei quickly hopped up and began feeling up Shouto was the latter kept the same stoic face, while Ryu just looked at the trio with an expression that could only be described as questioning everything he knew about existence.

* * *

Inko was sitting by the kitchen table with a large stack of manila folders, envelopes, and some photo albums piled up.

She was looking for the most recent copy of her family registry as she would need it as part of the various documents needed to enroll Eri into a school that she and All Might would scout for next week.

She stood up to better organize the all of the materials, placing the extra photo albums to the side to show Ochako later while double checking that Eri was happily seated watching a rerun of _Animal Buddies_. A smile crept up on her face knowing that Eri was in for quite the surprise later today.

"I knew I placed it here after I finished Izuku's enrollment at UA." Inko said to herself with some mild frustration getting back to the task at hand. After several minutes she lifted the last set of folders in the stack praying that she hadn't somehow lost the registry as it would just be extremely embarrassing to need a replacement at such a last minute moment. As she sorted through the paperwork, she didn't notice that a small but long envelope slipped out and landed gently on the floor.

"Ah! Yes here it is!" Inko said happily finding the copy of the registration with the way things are proceeding it was quite possible that Eri might soon be officially adopted by the Midoriya household, making this document critical if that were to happen. Sighing with relief Inko placed the paper aside with the photo albums to clean up and get started on making lunch for the two of them.

"_Hope you had fun today kids!" _Comicman's voice called out from the TV, while Anima signed the same. _"And remember to practice safe and responsible quirk use, be kind to one another and we'll see you next time on Animal Buddies! I'm Comicman and my co-host Anima! We'll you all next time!"_

Eri put down her tiny notebook that Izuku had given to her to help keep track of all the animals that was covered in each episode. An idea she got after seeing her surrogate father's note taking skills when it came down to quirks, with the two even sharing some notes when the show would talk about animals with quirks.

_The baby bear was very cute._

Eri managed to crudely write in the notebook, along with a few attempted drawings of bears and what bears liked to eat; like fish and honey. Once she was satisfied with her work, she placed the notebook down to try and see what else might be on TV, when her stomach began rumbling.

At this she quickly hopped off the couch and made her way into the kitchen where Inko was already hard at work fixing lunch.

Upon spotting the child, Inko flashed Eri a quick smile, while taking an educated guess on why Eri was here, "Lunch will ready soon okay Eri?" She spoke as she skillfully balled up some rice with her hands while using her quirk to move some of the fillings closer to her.

Eri nodded and was about to head back to the living room, when she spotted something white on the floor.

'_A letter,'_ Eri carefully picked and saw some rather faded black ink that made it difficult to read. After trying a couple of times she managed to make out what it said.

_**To: Section-Chief Kai Doumeki.**_

She didn't know the name, but knew that this most likely belonged to Inko. Eri carefully walked up to Inko holding up the letter before calling out, "Inki-ko-" She managed to correct herself this time, before pulling slightly on the hem of Inko's apron, "Inko! I found this."

Inko looked down while shaping the food with a look on her face, "Hm? I'm sorry honey did you say something?"

Eri nodded before holding the letter up a little higher.

Inko, not wanting to dirty the old looking letter with her soaked hands, focused on the letter with her quirk, pulling it mentally from Eri's grasp.

"Thank you honey," Inko said with a smile as Eri nodded again with approval that her small task was done and returned to the living room, "Now let's see what this is...oh." Inko said as she turned the envelope to see what it really was. "Oh Hisashi...you never did get your chance did you? I'm sorry I never delivered this for you."

* * *

Ochako happily ate the food that Jou provided for everyone again. Class was having an on-field lunch today to replicate what might happen in the case of long rescue operations, with Midnight requesting everyone to eat with their teams separately to build up both morale and create more effective team bonds.

Everyone with the exception of Ryu was wearing their costumes.

"Mhmm! This rice is really tasty Mori!" Ochako exclaimed as Jou continued to distribute food to everyone else. They found themselves in the middle of area full of fake rubble, with enough passage to allow them to walk around easily.

"Thank you! But I would really save your thanks for my helpers back in my class along with Lunch Rush for giving us some extra ingredients to work with."Jou chirped happily, glad that people enjoyed the food she and her team had made, especially since it only gave her the confidence to continue her parent's footsteps into the restaurant business.

"Come on Pani, give yourself some credit," Rikidou said as he grabbed a few more wrapped rice balls from the cart. "I know being humble is good and all but it's alright to get a little glory for yourself."

"Agreed." Both Ryu and Kashiko said at once as they both ate their food; seated on the floor nearby, Kashiko with some vegetable tempura and Ryu with a bowl some of rather spicy curry that made the eyes of almost anyone who got close to water up.

"I'll keep that in mind then, but in the meanwhile could you please fill out these survey cards for me? They're part of my course work as your business liaison. Just give them to Ms. Midnight when you're done please," Jou finished distributing the cards and dropping a small case that contained a few extra drinks for them, "Otherwise enjoy the food guys!"

"Merci!" Yuga said as he sat on a piece of fake rubble with a fancy looking steak on his plate cradled on his lap.

"You're welcome?" Jou responded before shrugging and began pushing the cart towards Katsuki's team. While Rikidou sat looking slightly disappointed that he wouldn't have lunch with her today like usual.

"Ah fear not mon ami!" Yuuga exclaimed upon seeing Rikidou's face, making everyone turn to looking at the walking disco ball knight. "I'm sure that La dame Mori is just as disappointed as toi."

"…Ra dame what now?" Rikidou questioned not understanding the bastardization of Japanese and French Yuga tried to speak.

"I think he might be teasing you Satou." Kashiko spoke up, understanding a bit of the French thanks to some period dramas she watched here and there, "Disappointed that Mori left us?"

"Aww that's rather sweet," Ochako breathed out between bites of her food. Rikidou's face went red, sure it was common knowledge that he was dating their business liaison but it wasn't something he really talked about with anyone.

Even when Mina tried to coax out some "deets," as she would say, from the two of them every now and then.

"Did you expect anything else from our resident _sweets_ hero?" Ryu added in with a small laugh.

"Kasei that was terrible and you know it." Kashiko said shaking her head while unable to stop herself from smirking.

"Guess I'll leave the humor to Kaminari then," Ryu said with a shrug. "Then again Satou's relationship is old news, 'cause I'm pretty sure someone else is disappointed of not eating with their significant other today." He added giving Ochako a sideways look. It took her a moment to process what the fire-eater just said before she broke in a red face.

"Hey!"

"Oh indeed I imagine it must be the same for said significant other." Kashiko decided to join in the teasing as well remembering her conversation with Izuku earlier.

"It's not like that with me and Izuku!" Ochako exclaimed with a red face

"It's _'Izuku and I'_ Uraraka," Kashiko corrected with a pointed finger and a stifled giggle.

"Funny, I didn't even mention a name Uraraka," Ryu retorted as Rikidou began to laugh.

"It seems like our madame Uraraka has been caught!"

"Oh har har," Ochako said with a small pout.

* * *

"Oh my goodness that is adorable!" Momo exclaimed seeing the photo on Shouto's phone.

This group found themselves inside one of the fake buildings, this one in particular was filled with a few empty crates and sheets of metal that helped serve as their dining area.

"That's Hikari for you," Shouto said with warm expression, remembering the day the picture was taken of Hikari with a set of finished braids sitting on Shouto's lap.

"Wow wonderboy, I didn't expect know that you were a hair stylist," Kyouka said surprised to learn of Shouto's handiwork with his niece.

"Right?! Hey Todoroki, do you think you could do my hair?!" Tooru asked excitedly with her gloves moving around dramatically.

_'Where would I even start?'_ Shouto mentally questioned on the idea of braiding the hair of an invisible girl.

"I'm no expert on hair styling but that looks pretty professional if you ask me." Mashiraou commented as he sat on top of one of the larger crates since his tail needed the extra room. They were waiting for Jou to arrive as she was currently serving Katsuki's team at the moment. "Where you learn how to do it?"

"Youtube videos and hard work," Shouto firmly answered before pulling the back of his hair into a small ponytail, "She just saw me once with this hair style and asked if I could style her hair...I found it impossible to say no."

The remaining four laughed at Shouto's last comment.

"She's also Iida's niece right?" Kyouka asked seeing some of the Iida family features on the young girl. Shouto nodded, "Our siblings got married about," he paused to ponder,"eight years ago? And Hikari was born six years ago next month."

"Oh so her birthday is coming up?" Momo commented curious to see what kind of gift someone like Shouto would give to someone he clearly cares so much about. It was difficult to gauge the normally stoic boy.

"It's the day just before the Sports festival. She's already going to be celebrating later today, since my father got her tickets to the live showing of Animal Buddies."

"Oh my little sister loves that show," Mashiraou said with a chuckle, "she'll be jealous to hear that."

"Comicman and Anima are pretty cool guys, I got to meet Anima once when he was on patrol, got his autograph too." Kyouka added with a grin, bringing up a selfie she took of her with the Pro-Hero.

"Well I do hope she enjoys herself, will you and Iida be going with her Todoroki?" Momo asked.

Shouto shook his head. "No, my father only got three tickets and her parents have already decided to take her. Honestly I'm rather glad. Hikari is bound to spend plenty of time with them."

* * *

Katsuki sat with a grin on his face placing down a card as the game he was playing with his squad. They were seated in the center of a crossroad in a small circle playing a game of UNO courtesy of Hanta who had planned to play it earlier with Eijirou and Mashiraou before realizing that they were going to do this exercise most of the day. Given the rapid pace of the game the squad all continued to take quick bites of their food as their turns came up.

"Yellow four bitches." Katsuki said on his next turn while thinking about his recent decision.

He had decided after much internal infighting to keep quiet about what he knew about Ochako's story to himself for now. As he didn't want Izuku to be distracted being all lovey-dovey with Ochako as the Sports Festival loomed overhead.

However, that's not to say he couldn't use this information to his advantage a bit later down the line but, for now, it was just a matter of time when he would start feeding Izuku and Ochako hints here and there.

_'Yuu might have been right...but if I play this right, I'll not only help Izuku out, but...beat out Yuu and the old hag on the bet they made of when the two will get together.'_

He had accepted that Ochako was in it for the long haul and stopped being hostile her; still he found it hard to try and make conversation with her. Not for the lack of trying mind but they didn't share much in common so this often made it a bit awkward.

Ironic that Tenya knew Ochako for even less time that he did but could talk to her, him and Izuku without batting an eye.

Yet this served as a relief for him as the blond didn't have to worry about Izuku so much and allowed him to focus on developing himself. He could relax and let down his guard if ever so slightly.

Class 1-A had proven to be something else when it came down to his insecurities of how the class would interact with Izuku after his secret was revealed. He could still feel the hesitation with some but it was nowhere near as bad as the reaction he was getting from most of the general population from the rest of the school. Mostly those from General Studies, but he definitely knew that a few from Class B still had a problem with Izuku still being here.

For now however he was actually able to breathe better and actually open up somewhat to his team at least.

"Wild Card Trade! Switch cards with me Bakugou and the next color will still be green." Hanta proclaimed placing down a card on the ground. The rest of the squad reacted to the bold move.

"Son of a bitch," Katsuki growled as he looked at his hand, he only had three cards left and one was a wild card. After trading cards, he realized that he was left with five normal cards. "I'm going to blow your ass to hell Tape Arms."

"Phrasing!" Denki called out with a laugh before calling his next card on his turn. "Four green."

"He's coming for that booty Sero," Mina interjected with a laugh before eating a quick bite of her rice ball and placed down her next card. "Four blue!"

"Is this high school or prison?" Hanta joked, "Eight blue."

"Aw damn it!" Eijirou exclaimed when he looked at his hand; he only had three cards. "Looks like I gotta draw."

Slowly but surely the team began to laugh as Eijirou kept pulling cards having no luck only cutting down his chance of victory further. Finally, after nine cards drawn, he managed to find success.

"Eight Red!"

* * *

"Wait, so Eri had already called us 'Mama and Papa' here before?" Izuku asked in surprise as the two animal teens look back in him with some amusement in their faces. His group had been fortunate enough to have been nearby a fake cafe when lunch had been called, so they were seated in the patio area to enjoy their meal.

"Indeed," Fumikage answered with a nod before biting into a dumpling from his plate.

"We didn't have much time _ribbit _to think about what she had said at the moment." Tsuyu added as she put a finger to her chin, pondering about that day, "We just mentioned you and Uraraka in order to coax out her the rubble in the fire zone _ribbit_, and that's how she answered."

"I see..." Izuku said as he put his hand under his chin thinking hard and his bowl of Katsudon left to cool on the table as he began to muttering to himself.

"And there he goes." Minoru said putting down his drink to watch Izuku's mumble storm in action.

Tenya spoke up with a reverse chop of a hand, "Midoriya, if you want my personal opinion given what I have seen of you and Uraraka especially when Eri had joined us here, I cannot imagine a better people we could have landed with, not to mention there was Bakugou to help you both like the 'Fun Uncle' he called himself." Tenya made a small smile after swiping his mouth with a napkin.

As an uncle himself, Tenya respected Katsuki's firm commitment to helping Eri with the two when they arrived. Even going so far as to restrain his normal manner of speech and toning down his spats with Ryu..._when he could help it_.

"You really think so Iida?" Izuku asked quickly snapping out of his mumbles quicker than normal.

"I have to concur with Iida, you and Uraraka managed to place her comfort while managing to balance schoolwork with ease," Fumikage commented, "It was quite impressive."

"_Ribbit_, and it was kind of cute when Eri let some of us get to hold her," Tsuyu said with a wide happy smile, "She clearly started to trust in us, _ribbit_ thanks in large part to the both of you, _ribbit_. Like with Tokoyami and the apple."

Fumikage coughed with some embarrassment at the mention of his close encounter with the unicorn kid.

"**And I didn't screw it up!" **Dark Shadow called out projecting itself from the body of its host as Fumikage tried to get it back on under control.

"Nope you did a good job _ribbit_." Tsuyu responded patting Fumikage's dark projection, much to its delight.

"**Ohohoho I like you! Fumi never treats me like this!"** It said relishing in the affection.

"Damn it Dark Shadow!"

"Oh he's fine _ribbit_...plus this is my chance to thank both of you for helping to shield us from that fireball." Tsuyu added as the dark projection nuzzled against the frog girl. The remaining three laughed as Fumikage, whose face normally hid his blushes, couldn't stop the rest of his body turning red with embarrassment.

"Asui...You already thanked me at the hospital," Fumikage finally managed to say.

"I thanked you, _ribbit_. But I never got a chance to thank Dark Shadow who deserves getting thanks too!" She stopped with the patting for a moment, "Also I told you to call me Tsu."

"Revelry in the dark..."

"**Yay! I get to stay!"**

* * *

Midnight sat comfortably in the observation room eating lunch with All Might, with the first week after the USJ finally over and things looked like they had gone back to a sense of normalcy once again. The two teachers had agreed that while the students still needed to be trained, they also needed time to have fun and bond over their shared experiences.

With next month's Sports Festival looming overhead these bonds would be challenged as these promising future heroes would need to compete; resulting in conflicts where teamwork and perhaps some subtle manipulations would be needed in order to win.

"I'm happy to see that my planned free day worked," Midnight commented as she looked at the monitors displaying the teams enjoying themselves.

All Might coughed lightly before nodding in agreement, happy that everyone seemed relaxed after the exercises. They had further plans to continue the lighter training exercises to both make up for lost time due to the USJ incident and to keep the promise he made to them after Aizawa's Trial by Fire.

_'Good lord, they really did go through a lot for their first month at school.' _All Might thought to himself.

Finally he answered with, "Indeed, the simpler exercises, along with the emphasis on team building, are something I could easily agree on."

All Might knew that he wanted Izuku to follow his own path, where All Might often worked alone with only one sidekick in his whole career. In the long run that plan had completely backfired on him.

He hoped that on the day that Izuku completely succeeds him as the next Symbol of Peace, that the boy won't repeat the same mistakes as he did.

"I got some ideas from Vlad," Midnight continued pulling out a small notebook with some of her own teaching notes, "A mistake I think I made early on was that I tried to be a nicer or 'funner' version of Eraserhead rather than just being myself," she sighed, "Given the differences of being a normal teacher versus being a homeroom teacher where I had so many more responsibilities than before help put things in perspective."

"So after the USJ I wanted try and learn from that and spoke to Vlad about his methods and compared them to Aizawa's. He does place a much stronger value in teamwork and cooperation."**

All Might thoughtfully scratched his chin, "Is that why you haven't been cracking out your whip and riding corps as of late?" He asked, it was a small observation but he had noticed that Midnight hadn't been using her favorite props lately.

Midnight looked away with some guilt on her face, "Before it was for Eri's comfort, but after I read the police report and statements during our meeting before the press conference; of what the kids who got stuck in the Fire Zone had gone through," Midnight looked at the monitors again, specifically at three particular students.

"One cold hearted bitch used a flaming whip on my students All Might," Tears began welling up in her eyes as she continued, "In my class alone we had Asui, Tokoyami and Kasei; the last one got it especially bad...when I saw the state of his old costume, the kid needed surgery to survive it All Might," she shuddered slightly, "I think the last thing any of those three needed was a reminder of the trauma they went through...I mean, I still have nightmares All Might...so I can only imagine what horror they might reli-"

She was cut off as All Might sighed as he reached for his coworker's hand. The students may have been on the upswing of their recoveries, but the teachers still needed to recover from parts of the horror themselves. It might be a good thing that the Golden Week holiday was coming up for them to recover as well.

* * *

Alex sat at one of the small tables that had been set-up for three next to the training field.

Eraserhead was nearby to supervise their training, hidden as he wanted to remain as hands off as possible.

It was fine though since the wait gave Alex plenty of time to think while he was still waiting for his two trainees to arrive in their P.E. gear. He did ponder over his earlier conversation with Mirio.

_'Well I really hope it works out for him.'_

Romance wasn't his strong suit, hell, he never even had a girlfriend himself. Still, he hoped that he gave Mirio the best advice he could give, ironically.

But Alex would have to worry about that later as he spotted the two newly made trainees. He had made it a critical point to remember as much as he could about the two, from their quirks and backgrounds to general likes and dislikes.

As a former liaison himself, he couldn't deny having a bias towards these two and wanted to help them reach their dreams of making it to the hero course. But before he could train them properly he needed to know them personally. Knowing how they tick alongside their execution of the use of their quirks would prove invaluable in setting them up for the best methods of training them.

At least, that's how he learned since Mirio and Shouta did lay into him during his training days.

School had ended for the day, but since these liaisons wanted the extra training they stayed after hours. Not knowing the upcoming hell they had just signed up for.

"Alright guys, I don't think we have been properly introduced yet. So I'll start us off, I'm Alexander Springfield but you can just call me Alex...or you can just call me Spring instead, because the full versions of my names are mouthfuls." Alex started with a light hearted tone as the two trainees took their seats, "I'm hope that our training will be both fun and exciting."

"Hitoshi Shinsou."

"Reiko Yanagi."

The three sat there awkwardly for a few moments.

Alex could already tell this was going to be a challenge.

Thankfully he came prepared, since the two actually reminded him a lot of Eraserhead, he knew that he was going to have to break them out of their shells in order to get the ball rolling. Now it was only a matter of _how _he was going to that and he has an idea on where to start.

"Okay now before we start, I have a few questions to get a better feel for what you want to learn here with me," Alex said before both of the trainees decided to make rather forward comments instead.

"How about we actually get started on our actual training instead Springfield?" Hitoshi said with folded arms.

"We know what we want Springfield, get stronger and make our way into the hero course," Reiko said with a bored expression, "We have been waiting for quite some time for Mr. Aizawa to teach us personally."

"And instead we get you. So forgive us if we don't seem to be the most pleased with your introduction and having to stay after school."

_'Shit...this is going to be a tough crowd to deal with...no matter no matter...I can work with them...no I __**will**__ work with them the best I can.'_

"Guys," Alex spoke as calmly as he could, "I do understand your frustrations really," his eyes went downcast, "More than you realize," looked back up to the liaisons, "And I'll be the first to admit that I am nowhere near as good as a teacher as Mr. Aizawa. _**But!**_ Like you guys I was too was once a liaison, hell I had to become a liaison from the general population before I got promoted to the hero course."

"And yet you found a way to screw it all up." Hitoshi interjected.

_'Cutting it real close,' _Alex thought to himself, forcing a smile and ignored the sharp comment. "_In any case_ these questions will help me, help you. So please the sooner we get it done. The sooner we can start your training."

The two give near identical sighs of exasperation.

_'Yep they're a lot like Aizawa...might also explain the bags under both their eyes.'_

"Alright, I'll take that as a 'Yes' so who wants to go first?" Alex began while still keeping up that painful smile.

"Me." Hitoshi answered flatly.

"Oh goodie...Okay then Shinsou." Alex began saying turning his attention to the mind binder, his face becoming slightly more serious. "Why do you want to be a hero?"

"Are you seriously asking that?"

_**"Answer the question."**_

"The same reason why anyone would, I want to help people in my own way."

"I would have to answer the same." Reiko interjected nodding in agreement with Hitoshi.

"That doesn't answer my question Shinsou."

Hitoshi paused, "What do you mean? I gave you my answer."

"You want to help people right? But there are many different ways to **"help people"** including several different career paths that would let you **"help people"** that doesn't involve being a Pro-Hero." He leaned in, "So I ask again...**_why do you want to be a Pro-Hero?_**"

Hitoshi looked away with a grimace, his middle school years came to mind with the hushed comments that were often said about his quirk, as a distance.

"I want to prove that someone with a villainous quirk like mine can be a hero." He answered, however what happened next caught both liaisons off guard.

"Pathetic," Alex said flatly his expression turning to one of disappointment, "What a selfish and pathetic reason."

Hitoshi finally had enough he rose from his seat and yelled out. "And who the hell are you to judge?! You don't know what's like to have people walk on egg shells when they discover that I have quirk that lets me take over their bodies. To be called the perfect villain, unlike you! You were lucky to be born with a heroic quirk!"

The look that Alex gave the young mind binder almost chilled him to the bone. _**"A heroic quirk eh?" **_In an instant Alex disappeared with a blue flash, appearing behind the indigo haired teen and grabbed him in a vicious head lock, covering Hitoshi's mouth with his free hand.

Reiko got up to try and save her companion only for Alex to knock her away to floor with a flat kick to the stomach.

"What is a Villain Shinsou? What is a Hero Shinsou?" Alex asked with a cruel look on his face his voice growling. It was easy to restraint the boy if his desperate attempt to break free were any indication. Alex could feel him now that he was close up. The kid was skinny compared to most of the boys in Classes A and B.

"You'd be surprised just how thin the line between the two could be. After all it was my so called "heroic" quirk that ended a life eleven days ago," He added another squeeze to Hitoshi's neck. "I've have already killed someone Shinsou," His grip became firmer, "And I did it to save one of my juniors who was about to be killed by an A-rank villain. And what was my reward? Humiliation and a stripped career path despite working my ass off to get here."

Hitoshi's heart pounded hard as he felt himself starting to black out, until Alex eased some of the pressure from his neck allowing him to get some much needed air.

"And you know what? If I had to make the same choice all over again knowing where I would end up, I would do it all over again," he eased his grip on the boy while still holding on to him firmly, "Because in the end, a proper hero should always put others before themselves while on duty."

Hitoshi froze, from what little he had seen of Alex being mostly based on whenever he watched the Battle trials between 1-A and 1-B. He seemed like the type of hero he disliked, the showboating type who prioritized their own ego over doing actual hero work. Yet he didn't expect this.

Alex turned to Reiko who was struggling to get up coughing hard as she clutched her stomach. "Yanagi did you experience similar treatment like Shinsou here? Did people judge you from your quirk?"

"The name...of my quirk...often made...people more...skittish around me." She managed to answer between large breaths; yet the look on her face told Alex that she clearly thinking about what he had said to them.

"Despite it being basically an advanced form of telekinesis huh?"

Reiko nodded.

Alex turned to Hitoshi he wasn't finished with him it was time to address his biggest flaw. With ease Alex used his quirk to spin himself and threw Hitoshi overhead at Reiko slamming them to the ground.

"Shinsou what type of training did you do to prepare for the practical entrance exam? And don't you dare use your quirk on me."

Hitoshi looked up blankly at his trainer as he tried to get off of Reiko and with a groan he yelled out, "There was no way to know what to expect!" He managed to say that between breathes and helping Reiko get back up with him.

"Was that an excuse not to do some strength training to help your skinny frame? Did you expect to get by using your quirk alone? Okay, add arrogance to mix alongside being selfish and pathetic."

This time it was Reiko's turn to snap up. "That isn't fair Springfield! How could we have known what to expect?!"

"Because life isn't fair...because when you are a Pro-Hero, you never know just what kind of villain you might run into every day," Alex answered without skipping a beat, "And if you want an example look no further than the USJ itself. It was supposed to be a simple training day only to turn into a living nightmare for everyone involved. When villains of all shapes and sizes appeared, some of which I know for fact would be completely immune to both your quirks," He added staring both of them down with a piercing gaze, "How would you have dealt with that eh?"

The two couldn't find him an answer, so Alex continued to speak.

"I won't lie that the exam favors quirks with some real power behind it, but even then there were ways you could have still passed the exam. For example those robots had built in weaknesses that you could have exploited, or you could have stepped in to help others in need which would have netted you rescue points. Because sometimes even the best heroes have to improvise and adapt to overcome situations, including working with others that you may have a low opinion of." As Alex finished up as he pulled out his cellphone.

The two liaisons looked at each other not knowing what else to expect until Alex walked up to them to show them a picture on the screen. It was of him, two years ago when he was noticeably heavier than he was now.

"Remember what I said at the beginning of this? That I understand your frustrations? I want you to understand that I didn't just mean it as me saying that I was a former liaison," Alex spoke with a gentler expression and tone of voice, "But because I too, had to learn from the same mistakes you two committed."

He confessed, much to their surprise.

"I once had a very selfish reason for wanting to be a pro, and as you can clearly see I too once had a pathetic body unsuited to help anyone and I was arrogant to believe that my quirk would be enough to get into UA alone until I got to the entrance exam," He had a small chuckle, "Yet in the end...I managed to screw it all up just like you said Shinsou," He put a hand on the two's shoulders, "And that's why I am here...to teach you everything I learned to give you a head start and to show you how to go kick some Hero course ass and doing my best to make sure you never repeat my fuck ups. "

Neither of the two liaisons could say anything else in response as they finally seemed to understand why he had been asked to help them train. His personally might have been vastly different, but his experiences aligned much closer to the two them. Finally of the two it was Hitoshi who bowed first, Reiko quickly following behind him.

"I'm sorry." The two said together.

"I don't want your apologies guys. I just wanted you to get into the right mindset to get this done the right way." Alex said with a more genuine smile.

"Now!" He said as he spread his arms out. "Come here for a group hug!"

"No." The two liaisons said flatly together with mild looks of amusement.

Alex threw his head back in laughter. "Aww...Oh well, no matter we got three weeks. I'll be getting that hug before we finish up sooner or later."

"Yeah no, not happening Spring." Hitoshi responded.

"Not in a million years Spring." Reiko added.

The responses only made Alex's smile grow wider. "So you say!" Alex started up as he turned around and invited them to the field. "Now that we got that out of the way. Let's begin the training from hell."

Hitoshi and Reiko looked at each other. He shook his head and gave her a knowing smirk. Her response was an awkward sort of smile with a hint of a laugh. After introduction like that hell seemed an appropriate way to describe it. The two began walking with some renewed confidence in their future as possible hero course students.

Eraserhead laid nearby with his sleeping bag, he had a rare smile on his face. "Good work Springfield."

"Good lord boy!" The old lady chastised the foreign trainer an hour later as she continued to treat the bruised and unconscious liaisons. Alex however remained on his knees with his head to the ground in apology.

"I know Aizawa said to give them hell, but they're not going to learn like that!"

"I'm sorry Recovery Girl! Now I know that I should go just a tiny bit easier next ti-ow!" Alex tried to explain before the old woman gave him a solid wack on the top of his head with her cane.

"You better! Or no amount of luck will save you from me!"

"Yes ma'am!"

* * *

"Where are we going mama?" Eri asked Ochako as the group of four made their way down the street while Ryuko went to go find a parking spot. It was late into the afternoon and though she had gone outside with all of them before, they had never gone out this late before and dressed in nicer clothes to boot. Needless to say she was a little nervous.

"You'll see very soon." Ochako said while giving Izuku a knowing wink. Izuku chuckled to himself, before ruffling Eri's head lightly. It had been easy keeping the secret of the tickets until now, but they knew that Eri was both curious and prone to anxiety if left in the dark for too long. So they often gave her semi-vague answers, while making sure not to sound dismissive of her concerns.

"Don't worry Eri," Izuku reassured the young girl who breathed out a soft giggle when she felt Izuku's gentle hand on her head. "We're almost there and once where done, we'll get you a yummy treat okay?"

"Okay papa." She answered back before grabbing Izuku's hand from her head and holding it instead.

Inko couldn't help but look at the adorable trio with both fondness and some regret. With the letter that Eri found earlier that day, along with all of the craziness that had occurred in the past week. She had almost forgotten that the anniversary of Hisashi's death was next week and that letter...his final letter had yet to be delivered.

It hurt to think about it, even after all this time. She still missed that goofy yet sad man.

But with what was in front of her, she knew that Hisashi would have been happy to see this, but unhappy to see her like this. Maybe it was time to finally move on, now that things were more relaxed at home, after all Eri was about to get settled into a school soon.

It made her think about what was next in her future; perhaps she could go back to school and find a new career path. After all she didn't want to rely on All Might forever.

Still, before she could do any of that. She needed to figure out how to get Hisashi's final message to its intended recipient.

"Whoa there Inko, you gotta catch up with us!" Ryuko's voice snapped Inko out of her thoughts.

"Wha?" Inko managed to say as Ryuko help guide Inko along to the studio. "We're waiting on you!"

"Oh! Yes of course!"

Izuku and his family were guided to the backstage of studio. With their golden VIP tickets they were treated to special seating and the chance to meet the hosts and special guest before and after the show. He decided to hold Eri in his arms as the family were led to the VIP waiting room; Ryuko had a free pass since she was once a previous hero guest on the show.

"Alrighty!" Their studio guide said cheerfully as she opened the door for the Midoriyas and guest, "Just wait here a moment and our hosts will be here soon," she paused before turning back, "I also think we got a few more guests expected to arrive shortly, so please enjoy some of the complementary water and snacks available while you wait."

Izuku smiled as he saw Eri's eyes go wide when they entered the VIP waiting room, filled to the brim with Animal Buddy merchandise. It was a stunning contrast to the rather drab and empty halls from before.

"Surprise Eri, Alex got us tickets to see your favorite show live!" Ochako said to the young girl who sat in awe of the room.

It was to the point that Eri kept opening and closing her mouth as she tried to find the right words to say. It personally reminded Izuku of a cute little goldfish. Izuku gently let her down to let the so she could explore the room as she pleased.

"Wow I never thought I'd find us here!" Inko said as she and the kids made themselves comfortable in the room.

"It's always like this," Ryuko interjected with a laugh. "It was the same here when I was the show's special guest. The VIPs would be held here until the host and guest arrived to take personal pictures and autographs. I just wonder who the hero guest for today is?"

The VIP room door opened again with the same guide as before repeating her lines to the next set of VIP guests.

"-so please enjoy some of the complementary water and snacks available while you wait." They heard her finish up as the next set of guests entered the room. Ryuko and Inko were overjoyed to see a familiar face. While Izuku and Ochako looked surprised as Eri tilted her head in kind.

"My my, isn't this is a surprise!" Tensei spoke up seeing his friend and fellow investigator Ryuko and the widow of his deceased former mentor as Fuyumi and Hikari appeared behind him.

"Hey Iida!" Ryuko said with a wave from the couch, while Inko stood up to hug Tensei.

"It is so good to see you Iida!" Inko exclaimed as Tensei gladly returned the hug.

"It's wonderful to see you too Mrs. Midoriya, I'm glad you're doing well!"

"It's Iida's brother!" Izuku called out to an excited Ochako, with Eri remembering Tenya from her time at UA before spotting someone else a young girl around her age that waved at her. Eri looked around for a moment to make sure that she wasn't waving to anyone else.

"Izuku look!" Ochako managed to whisper to the boy without Eri noticing at the two girls approached each other as the adults continued to talk to each other. Hikari happily walked up to Eri without any fear, while Eri took her time with some gentle reassurances from her surrogate parents.

"Hi! I'm Hikari!" The youngest Iida piped up as she introduced herself to the shy unicorn named Eri. "What's your name?"

"My..name is E-E-Eri." Eri managed to say with only the lightest of stutters.

"That's a nice name!" She said as she entered Eri's personal space, "Ooh I can't wait to meet Comicman and Anima! Do you think we'll get to see them soon? Daddy and Grandpa already met them, but I never have before! What about you?"

Eri backed off just a little bit as Fuyumi cleared her throat lightly. All of the adults along with the teens had gotten quiet to witness the sight of the two interacting. It was especially exciting for those in Eri's party as hope rose in that she might make a friend her age.

"Hikari honey, give Eri a bit of room. She's a bit like Konoka from your class dear, so be gentle with her."

"Oh! Okay mommy!" Hikari quickly backed off as she realized her mother's words, "I'm sorry Eri!" Hikari offered a hand to the snow haired girl,

Eri, grateful to have her personal space back, managed to produce a small shy smile and took a few steps closer. She took the offered hand and was shown around the room better. Slowly but surely the two began talking, and continued to chat about their favorite animals and songs from the show.

"Daddy said that they might have bunnies to show today!" Hikari exclaimed excitedly, with Eri becoming delighted with the idea of possibly seeing bunnies today. Until yet again the door opened with the coordinator letting three more VIP guests come in.

"Heh, if it isn't the Water Hose heroes!" Tensei spoke up greeting the two familiar faces of the firefighting duo.

"Ingenium!" Junpei Izumi gave a mustached smile with a raised arm, "You son of a gun!" he said with a laugh as the two pros clasped wife Akane Izumi waved to her son's teacher before turning to another smaller face standing behind,

"Well look who is here Kouta!" She gently brought the boy up in front of her, "It's your classmate right? And it looks like she has a new friend!"

"Hi there Kouta," Fuyumi called out to her student, "Nice to see you outside of class huh?"

Kouta was a polite if not a bit of an awkward boy, but he had his moments of being both incredibly sweet and having quite an attitude that may have been due to his parent's rather busy schedule that often left him under the care of his aunt Mandalay of the Wild Wild Pussycats from time to time.

It was a relief then to the young teacher that the lad was getting a chance to spend time with his parents, much like Tensei was trying to do with Hikari.

"Hi Mrs. Iida..." Kouta answered back shyly not expecting his teacher to be here...which also meant.

"Kouta!" Hikari chirped upon seeing the familiar the dark haired young boy in a red horned hat.

_'Oh no.' _Kouta thought as he braced for impact as the girl zoomed in and launched herself at the boy, knocking the air out of him.

"Why didn't you say you were coming too!?" Hikari said with a small pout as she crushed the boy in a hug.

"Can't. Breathe..."

"Oh never mind! You're here! Come on, you need to meet my new friend!" Hikari continued before dragging Kouta to Eri, much to the amusement of everyone else in the room. Izuku couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of Eri actually smiling more and more as Hikari's introduction to the boy in the horned hat made their interactions much smoother.

It only got better when the hosts of the show arrived. The adults and teens stood by many knowing the routine that the hosts of the show would address the children primarily.

"Hello everyone!" Comicman with a _**pop **_as he used his quirk to make his speech bubble head make a **:3 **at the door. "Can we come in?"

All three of the kids looked at excitedly at the door with Hikari almost bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Yes please!" They trio managed to say together, remembering how the show often started.

In an instant Comicman's speech bubble head changed to a **:D **followed by him saying. "Great! I'm happy to welcome and introduce you all to me, myself and my friends!"

With that the door opened to reveal Comicman, Anima and their special guest. One of whom made Ryuko hide to avoid some of the awkwardness.

_'At least it wasn't Edgeshot.' _She managed to breathe a small sight of relief that it wasn't her boyfriend.

"Well, well looks like we got three little ones today huh?" A short but very well built tanned white haired woman wearing bunny ears along with a purple-white leotard that featured a crescent moon on her chest and rabbit themed purple boots said as she entered the room.

The bunny hero Mirko looked around spying Ryuko one of her rivals seated a foot away. Normally this would have resulted into one of their rather infamous spats but she couldn't afford to do that in front of these kids today.

Izuku was excited to see another up and coming Pro-Hero like Mirko on the scene and would have loved to unload questions upon questions about her quirk but also knew not to interrupt the fun that the three were having with the Pros. Eri was completely floored by the gift basket that she received from the three that was filled with all kinds of merchandise, including some very soft plush toys of several kinds of animals. When everything was set and done, the hosts motioned everyone to follow them and begin the show.

* * *

The family was driving back home after the show. It had been a night of surprises; if the white bunny ears and sliver badge pin Eri wore on her on her head and shirt respectively were any indication. Eri had made her appearance on national television today and she did an amazing job all things considered, but now the little girl was fast asleep on Ochako's chest while she sat on her lap from all of the days excitement.

"Oh my little bunny brigade leader." Ochako cooed softly as she brushed Eri's hair and moved the bunny ears from getting in her face, while Izuku looked on fondly at the sleeping little girl; holding on to all of the goodies Eri had received today. After seeing her in action with some of the trivia knowledge she had learned from the books they got her, it made Izuku want to try and read through those books with her again.

But tonight he'll just settled with gently brushing aside some stray hairs from Eri's face. It had been just two short months and this was Eri may had still have her moments of nervousness and anxiety, but she was learning to open up and try new things. Izuku couldn't be any more proud of her for making new friends and slowly overcoming her fears bit by bit.

Up in the driver's seat Ryuko was still trying her best to recover after seeing her rival in that marching skit she had been forced to do for the crowd. It was a fun day for her to spend more time with her extended family again; Pro-Hero work and working on Hisashi's case was taking a lot of her time as of late. She hoped the meeting tomorrow would have something new for them to go on. She still wanted justice for her cousin, and it broke her heart almost everyday she spent with them knowing the truth that Hisashi had been framed.

Inko looked at the trio behind them fondly from the backview mirror of the car, after seeing Eri interact with those kids and learning about the school they went to together, Inko had a very solid idea of what school would suit Eri best. Now it was all a matter of convincing All Might of her plans. Finally there was something else she had in store for the family tomorrow given that they might not have time for it in the week to come.

_'I should give Mitsuki's a call to make sure they're not busy tomorrow.'_

* * *

_**Author's Commentary**_

*Built in weaknesses, I firmly believe that the robots from the enterance exam had a built in weakness that could be exploited to give more clever students without physcial based quirks a chance to pass the exam.

**Vlad's teaching style, a headcanon that was basically confirmed in one of the Manga's last arcs at UA. Which we saw that Class 1-B did have a stronger focus on teamwork and cooperation rather than more individual based training of Eraserhead's teaching style.

So yes! You can see that the Waterhose Heroes are indeed alive in this universe, but Kouta now has some issues with feeling a bit negelected with how busy his parents can be while being Pro-Heroes. This will make a future arc a bit more interesting when it comes time to pass. For those who wanted to see more of the TV show itself don't worry I got you covered! As will get to see snippents of Eri on TV with her new friends in the chapters to come.

Like I mentioned before there will be a few chapters that will have some set-up, training, bonding, fluff and fun before we hit on the main event of the Sports festival, so I hope you are as excited to read as I am to write it.

The bonus _**Chapter XXX-S: Bubbly Love**_ will be out within the next few days.

With _**Chapter XXXI: Ghosts of the Past. **_Will be out as soon as possible.


	31. Short Story III: Bubbly Love

Apologies to _**D3lph0xL0v3r**_ for how long it took to complete your prize for solving the very first cryptogram of this story. I do hope it was worth the wait, we still have a lots of fun chapters in store with just a bit more set-up before we hit-up the main event of this Arc that is the Sports Festival.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

**_My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight_**

**_Chapter XXX-S*: Short Story III: Bubbly Love_**

* * *

Mirio sat there outside as the afternoon light became the twilight of dusk. There was a lot running through his mind at the moment. As it was his last year at UA, in addition to being the lead in the UA third year rankings and leader of The Big Five, so there was always something or other going through his head in someway shape or form. From his career to his grades, and yet all of that changed in a single month as so much had happened in such a short time. From helping train some very talented first years to repeling a villain attack of a massive scale within the halls of UA itself fighting alongside those same first year students.

The third years in The Big Five had all had their own brushes with death since gaining their provisional licenses, yet it was this incident that seemed like the closest that any of them had ever come to dying. And that can make anyone to stop to think about life when the dust finally settles. This in turn brought back some old feelings he has had for a quite sometime, feelings he had thought that he had buried deep within himself for well over an year. Feelings for his fellow teammate and best female friend Nejire Hadou.

It was almost laughable, Nejire was considered to be one of the most beautiful girls at UA bar none. Yet that was all that many seemed to talk about when it came to her. Yes Nejire was extremely beautiful, but she was also incredibly talented, resourceful, and actually quite intelligent when it comes down to it. Yet none it ever went to her head, with her bubbly nature keeping her in check, always keeping her grounded, it was no wonder why many wanted her as a romantic partner _-even among some of the other ladies. _So the competition was stiff to say the least.

Mirio sighed as he looked at the time displayed on his phone's screensaver.

He had worked very hard to get where he was in life with countless hours of training with his quirk with various teachers, mentors and even fellow students. He wasn't the best when it came to his grades; only being above-average compared to the rest of his teammates. Yet he felt like he should have saved the romance until after his career got started upon finishing school. He had been afraid of letting these feelings interfere with both their careers here at UA, something that Nejire seemed to believe as well given that every confession or request for a date, she had turned down with batting an eye.

Which is why after thinking it over and over again and after putting everything into consideration, he decided to confess to her today. Even if she rejected him too, he at least wanted to let his feelings be known. Which is why earlier today he had asked one of those previously rejected suitors _-and the only one he trusted_ for some encouraging words of advice.

"_Dude...just be yourself." _He remembered Alex saying to him, when visited him in the faculty lounge earlier that day, he had been busy reading the files on his new trainees.

"_It's cheesy as hell to say that I know, but if she likes you, then she likes you for being you. Simple as that, she didn't like me in that way and I accepted that...then again I was riding a high from when I got the then good news, so I wasn't thinking too hard at the moment I asked her." _He had added with a nervous laugh.

"_Are you sure that you're okay with it though?" _He remembered asking back. Alex had been screwed over so damn badly this past month. He didn't want to add to it by being successful from where he failed.

"_Come on man, I just said I accepted that she didn't like me in that way. I'm not going to be hung up over it, besides...since I'm going back to the States in a few weeks, it wouldn't really matter. I'm not one for long distance relationships, so even if I had somehow gotten the chance, I'd most likely would have broken it off by now. So I don't want you to feel guilty over me,because I don't matter in this equation. All that matters to me at this moment is you guys, I want you to be happy and I want her to be happy, because both of you are my great friends who helped me get where I am today alright?" _

"_Alright...thank you Alex." _

"_No problem...oh if I can add one last thing Mirio?" _

"_What is it?" _

"_I ship it." _

"Mirio!"

The blond boy, snapped out of his thoughts as he finally heard the voice of the person he had been waiting for coming from his right. Mirio turned his head to wave at bluenette as the sun shined right behind her; giving her an almost ethereal glow. She smiled towards him walking forward with a slight lean.

"I finally found you! Have you been waiting long? I'm sorry about that, Yuyu held me up longer that I thought..." Nejire began saying and continued to speak; asking several questions and in some cases answering them herself. Mirio simply chuckled as the girl continued to speak, unable to get a word in until he got the opening which would be any second now. Once you knew Nejire long enough, you knew that she would eventually need stop for a breath.

"But the cat was really really cute! So anyway now I'm here and what did you want to talk about?" Nejire finished up standing right next to Mirio with hands behind her and taking a rather large _-albeit silent_ breath.

Mirio stood up from his seat to look at Nejire in the eyes, she leaned a bit back while looking upward at him.

"Wow I keep forgetting just how tall you are Mirio!" She said with a giggle. Mirio smiled she really knew how to ease his nerves even without realizing it.

"Thanks for coming here, I really appreciate you coming here like I asked," Mirio began saying gratefully.

"No problem! I'm just happy that I caught up before it got too late."

Mirio hummed in response. It was now or never, he couldn't back out now.

"Nejire."

He started off surprising her. Just from the firmness in his voice alone was enough to catch her off guard; Nejire knew now that this was a little more serious than what she originally thought. She remained silent knowing now was not the time for her normal routine.

"For the last two plus years, you've been a great friend to me and Tamaki. From training to studying and everything in between. And in that time, I grew to have feelings for you."

Nejire's eyes grew wide as she realized what this was, Mirio was confessing to her.

"And at first," The blond lad continued undeterred by her expression. "I simply thought it was a simple crush and nothing more, but it only grew and grew with time." Mirio let out a tired sigh. "Until finally it all came to a head last week, when we all got another taste of reality. So I just couldn't go another day without letting you know. Nejire Hadou I like you, much more than a friend so I would like to ask if you will please be my girlfriend?"

Nejire looked down; eyes hidden in her hair.

She was speechless, in all of her years here at UA she had heard numerous confessions before often by people she barely even knew. Few of her possible suitors ever spoke to her with such passion, but in this case also spoke with such honest earnestly. Yet she had rejected all of them, because none of them had come from the one person that she had wanted to hear those words from...until today.

She had sincerely thought that her feelings had been one sided, which why she had never brought it up, yet in the end as luck would have it, her feelings were mutual. Part of her always thought that she would simply let out of the feelings she had for him one day, now that this was happening she didn't want her chance to slip had always been so sweet and kind, confident and brave. And while not the smartest guy in the world, with a strange sense of humor that she frankly just found endearing. Mirio was and had always been Mirio, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

Mirio stood there with the same passionate expression on his face, while on the inside he was nervous out of his mind.

_'Oh no...did I mess it up?' _He thought, after all Nejire was pretty quick to whip out a rejection without hesitation. _'Maybe I came on too strong...I should just apologize an-' _His thoughts however were cut off as Nejire embraced the tall blond boy.

"I thought that I would never hear those words from you," Nejire said just loudly enough for him to hear, making his heart race with excitement. "And I'm so happy that I finally did."

"Nejire does this mean?"

"I've liked you too, for a very long time. I just thought my feelings weren't shared by you and I didn't want to get in your way."

Mirio chuckled as he returned her embrace at last, looks like they had more in common that he originally thought. The two simply stood there in that warm embrace, until Nejire finally gave him the answer he had been waiting for.

"Mirio," She said looking up at him.

"Yes I would like to be your girlfriend."

Mirio's face blew up into a shining grin only for Nejire to grab his face and plant her lips on his, the two shared that quiet moment alone and out of sight.

Or so they thought.

_Snap! Click! _

"Oooh how scandalous!" A voice said to herself quietly from a fair distance away hiding in the brush as she continued to take pictures of the newly formed couple. "Now this is a scoop of the year, _Nejire Hadou finally nabs a boy, after rejecting an army of suitors!_ No no that's a shit title...no matter no matter its all a work in progress. All of seniors in the Journalism Club are going to flip their shit at this!"

Once the two happy couple left the scene, the young girl hopped out of her hiding place. She was of average height with flaming red hair and eyes; she was Class 1-B Business studies liaison Kiyoko Mikami and she was planning to make a name for herself here at school. As the best upcoming journalist in the business.

"Can't wait to develop these jaw dropping pics!" She said to herself with an excited grin as turning around to head over to the journalism club, only to bump face first into someone. "Hey what gives!...Oh crap."

Right in front of her clad in trainer's gear and with a fresh bandage on his forehead was Alexander Springfield with his arms folded; carrying a stern expression on his face. He had just gotten out of the nurse's office to go clean up some of the remaining gear he had left behind on the field after training. Only to notice the redhead sneaking around the area with that camera.

"Yeah no...that ain't happening on my watch."

* * *

**Author's notes**

***S** in roman numerals are used to express "Half" so this is basically chapter 30.5, but I am dedicated to using the roman numeral system like the asshole I am.

This was a delightful short piece to write, we will continue the main chapters from here on in. Also I will ask again since no one really answered this question last time.

When it comes to these short stories, would you prefer having them attached to the end of chapters or having them have their own mini chapters that get uploaded between chapters? I don't mind doing either, but I would like to have an opinion as that would be a great help.

Finally something came to my attention recently about reviews, as I recently got a few PM's from various readers that expressed that they wanted to review but didn't really know how to review something.

So I think that adding these tips might help you with that.

So one key thing that I tend to look for in reviews his simple feedback, you could go in depth (And for those of you who already do that, I thank you and love you guys for doing so), but you can also highlight things simple things that you liked or disliked.

Examples of this maybe a joke or particular scene you liked or dislike would be enough.

Because for example one thing I'm trying to work on his humor, but I sometimes have no idea if any of my more humorous moments (Or attempts at humor) in a scene are actually making people laugh or not so getting feedback on moments like that are a great help to me and other authors.

Another example could also let me know if I fucked up a moment in terms of tone.

For example, if you found scene funny when it should have been very dramatic and tense scene, then that would mean I have royally fucked that scene up, because it shouldn't be funny.

Anyway guys I hope you enjoyed this mini "Half" Chapter.

I'm hard at work on **_Chapter XXXI: The Ghosts of the Past._**

Also it does seem like

**_My Hero Academia Untold Draco Knight _**will be updating very soon, most likely after either **_Chapter XXXII_** or** _XXXIII _**In addition, **_Draco Knight_** will have another chapter uploaded later on down this Arc, most likely in the middle of the Sport's festival itself.

Finally The latest project in The Untold universe. **_My Hero Academia Untold Interviews!_** Should be ready to go with its first chapter just before the start of the Sports Festival. More details will be shared very soon.

My goal is to have _**Chapter XXXI**_ done and uploaded before the New year so I'm working hard to meet that deadline, but until then my dear readers.

As always with lots of love.

_-X_


	32. The Ghosts of the Past

Checks the Calendar...Eleven days late...SHIT...fuck it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR MY DEAR READERS!

With the new year comes a number of new things. Including a new position in my company which may change my schedule that could open up more free time for myself to write more.

This chapter was supposed to be 6k words, but ended up being 10K soo I'm just going to stop worrying about chapter length and just write until I'm done.

Thank you for the people who answered my short stories question and after considerable thought, Short Stories will remain attached to shorter chapters. (Unless it is a very special short story that warrants it- This will be something that happens in the future)

Anyways with that enjoy the chapter.

* * *

**Reviews ** Like before there were quite a number of reviews, so I answered some of them via private message.

_Patrickthenobleman: _Yeah, I didn't make much efforts that Hikari would meet Eri, the surprise here was Kouta and Water Hose. (Like said Alternate Universe, ya gotta make those changes) You know especially know what I'm talking about.

_IronDruid93: _Downtime is important, this is a slow burn story after all, and I really want to develop the characters even if its only for a bit as we prep for the Sports festival. Alex was told to give his trainees hell so he will do so, but he also understands the two and knows that their attitude will affect their performance and curbing that sooner than later will only benefit them.

_JCHudson:_ In canon, we don't know much about Kaminari's family, but for this fic. Yes Kaminari's family has a villainous background which will come up later, for plot and development.

_Jetstar77: _I'll just say this. Not a spoiler, Hajime is not Ryu's father and it is Nishimoto who has red eyes. Glad you enjoyed the rest.

_Unsuspecting: _There are other fics that have a nicer Bakugou too, not just mine. Me personally I still heavily dislike the character, but I refuse to character bash on principal so I work with him like this, keeping his personality, while reworking him to fit in this dynamic.

_Acw28:_ All I will say that this comment made me laugh in a good way.

_Turbowolf:_ Welcome to the fandom, the answer to your first question has already been answered in later chapters, but in short. PS,RS,1FYR. (Probationary Student, Recommended Student, 1st Year Rep.) And second I had to look up the Pokemon. No, it would be more accurate to say that he looks a bit like Natsu Dragneel in his more dragonish form, from Dragon Cry, only without the horns and wings. Green, with hardened bony plate scales covering parts of his arms, shoulders and chest.

_Guest: _Well I'm happy that you gave me a chance. I know about the most common complaints about OC's and was determined to make sure not to repeat those common issues. If I may ask, what exactly changed your mind to give me a chance?

* * *

**Recommendation**

**My Hero Academia: Santa's Nutcracker** By heroes1202

An adorable work that is still in progress, but is a delight to read if you love the green tea ship!

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I:Dusk **_

_**Arc III: The Sports Festival**_

_**Chapter XXXI: The Ghosts of The Past**_

* * *

"_**The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone." **_

_**-Harriet Beecher Stowe**_

* * *

Izuku and Katsuki walked alone with the cleaning supplies they brought for the occasion. Despite slightly more somber mood the two boys couldn't help but chat a little more freely, since neither family nor other friends were there at the moment. It was a bit of a walk to reach their destination so they took complete advantage of it.

"I told you to confess to Kyu when you had the chance," Izuku commented with a tiny smirk etched on his face, doing his best not to laugh knowing that Katsuki was still feeling the sting of reality when Ryuko joined them today, and told them a little known fact that she was officially dating a gentleman by the name of Shinya Kamihara

Though neither realized it was Edgeshot in a very thorough civilian attire.

"If we weren't in a graveyard right now, I would beat your ass for that." Katsuki answered back through gritted teeth, clearly still annoyed by fact.

Izuku could almost see the blood vessel in his forehead ready to pop out, but knew that Katsuki didn't mean it. And besides he wanted a tiny bit of payback for all of the teasing Katsuki had done to him about Ochako, even if was crushing on her hard.

"Look at the bright side Kacchan, you're basically free now right?" The broccoli head shrugged, "and you've even dated a bit back in middle school so I'm pretty sure you'll find someone else." Izuku continued speaking offhandedly as if he was talking about the pleasant weather they were having that spring day.

Katsuki sighed, only to have a shit eating grin grow on his face as he remembered the story he had heard from Ochako and decided now was a good time to place some bread crumbs. Time for a little payback of his own.

"That's funny," Katsuki began slyly, "I could almost say the same about your _princess_ from back in elementary," the blond looked aside to Izuku, "you finally given up on finding her, now that you have Uraraka?"

Izuku's face broke out in a shade of red so fast that even Katsuki worried that his friend would faint. "N-no-no, I mean yes...I mean...Ochako and I aren't even dating!"

"I don't know, you're still addressing her by her first name, adopted Eri," Katsuki began casually listing off with his free hand, enjoying the ever so sweet revenge he was dishing out to his best friend. "Hell, Ryuko caught you two cuddling together this morning."

"She promised he wouldn't say anything!" Izuku almost yelled out hiding his face which only made it harder Katsuki to hold back his laughter, "I-it was an accident! We were just tired from the whole day and just fell asleep when we were reading Eri her favorite story!"

"She didn't," he chuckled, giving Izuku a bit of a toothy grin, "I just took a guess from the face she made when she came back from your room, when auntie asked her to check if you were awake or not," he revealed before stopping in his tracks to lean on a lamp post trying not to die from laughter. He couldn't believe he had gotten it right while Izuku groaned from being fooled.

"So you have let that girl go? Are you free too?"

"That's not the point...I mean," Izuku added a sigh; "it would be nice to see her again after all this time." Izuku managed to say as he recovered from the embarrassment and motioned his friend to continue walking toward their destination. What surprised Katsuki however was Izuku voice was growing firmer.

"But, it's been ten years now, holding on to something like that is just desperate," He turned to Katsuki, "Like you and Kyu." Then started to walk ahead with a smile on his face.

"Motherfuc-" Katsuki actually had to bite his tongue to keep from yelling in the middle of the graveyard. But he cleared his throat, determined not to lose, "Ah I see...you make a good point...so I guess I'll just keep the fact that I think I found that girl from ten years recently."

Katsuki's grin grew again as he watched Izuku walk on.

'Three, two, one.'

Izuku nearly tripped over his feet when he stopped and turned around, "Kacchan I wasn't born yesterday," he attempted to straighten himself, "besides you've said that before over the years," he looked aside, "fell for those more than once."

"She's from out of town, and only recently moved back," Katsuki retorted as he took the chance to walk past Izuku as they were almost to their destination.

"And how would you know it was her then? You never seen her, and I could barely remember what she looked like!" Izuku interjected following his friend now.

"Let's just say, I overheard a very familiar story recently from her point of view...but if you really don't believe me. I have some hardcore proof."

"Let's see it then."

"Ah-ah! I want to prove something else first." Katsuki said though the tone of his voice became low as he turned the corner and arrived to the spot they had journeyed for. Shattered glass, burnt matches and scrunched up cigarettes surrounded a modestly sized marble gravestone though a passerby would barely be able to see the white stone with all the foul graffiti haphazardly sprayed all over it. The name on the stone read; Hisashi Midoriya.

"…Hey there uncle...it's been a while hasn't it?" The blond spoke gently to the gravestone.

Izuku paused for a moment when he turned the corner,"What did you want to prove Kacchan...?"

"I swear on my master's grave that I'm telling you the truth." Katsuki said firmly with a straight face, with his hand placed on Hisashi's grave tensed, he knew now that Katsuki was serious since he would have never done that lightly. So unless Katsuki made a genuine mistake, Izuku was convinced that Katsuki was at least sure that he knew the girl.

"Okay Kacchan, I get it...I believe you. So can you tell me who she is?"

"I thought you said it doesn't matter."

Izuku face became red once again, but almost as if to prove his point. He mimicked his friend and followed up by placing his hands on his father's grave.

"It doesn't, but I would still like to see her again before I ask Ochako out after the Sports festival." Izuku answered with the most serious look on his face possible, despite how red it still was.

Katsuki simply listened as Izuku continued.

"I wanted to thank her for making me feel like a hero, like a knight in a time that I was having doubts...but I also want to let go of the past." Izuku's face cooled down to his normal tone, "I was too focused on the past, spent too much time hiding because of my father. I can't keep doing that," he straightened up, "I want- no I need to focus on the future now...and after everything that's happened...and I'd like Ochako to be part of it."

Katsuki sighed, admitting defeat for the battle but was determined to win the goddamn war. Still he had to stop himself from laughing at the irony. And he wasn't gonna lie, the romantic part of him was now a little more determined to make it happen.

"About time you grew some balls."

"Faster than you when it came to Kyu," Izuku shot back just as fast, swiftly learning a karate chop from Katsuki on top of his head.

"Ow...you're not Iida." Izuku squeaked as he rubbed the top of his head.

"And you're normally not a smart ass what else is new?" Katsuki retorted with folded arms. "Still I'll tell you who it us...when you beat it out of me at the Sports festival."

"Kacchan!"

"Hey, you wanna win, and I wanna fight for real. You said you'd catch up to me right? It's been nearly a year since that slime fucker remember? So you beat me, and you get your answer...and it will be just in time for you ask Uraraka out after you meet that girl again."

_'I gotta remember to film this shit and up my bet against Yuu and the Old Hag.'_

Izuku looked at his friend with a newly found determination and a large smile on his face and held out a hand.

"Deal."

Katsuki took it with his own with wicked grin on his face to match his friend's own determination that excited Katsuki and sparked his own drive to win. Even if he won against his friend, he could still give him a helpful tip in the right direction. No matter what, this was going to be one hell of a Sports festival that people would be talking about for years.

"Alright then...now let's fix up uncle's grave for everyone else." Katsuki said after breaking off their handshake.

* * *

Once again the Draco Knight Investigation Team gathered up to pull up what it had so far. Hopes were high as both the police and political wings of the investigation had some important updates to share. Nezu once again pulled up Sir Nighteye on his laptop in addition to the latest member to join his political staff.

"How's the new office Gran?" All Might asked his old mentor who sat next to Sir Nighteye; wearing a well-fitted brown suit instead of his normal outfit or costume.

"_Boring, but I get to have access to the microwave anytime I want, so I say it was fair trade." _The retired pro said with a light cough. Officially Gran Torino was now an advisor to Sir Nighteye; unofficially the man was pulling double duty as both additional security and working on making friends within the halls of power.

"Is this it for now?" Endeavor asked impatiently looking around the room noticing that a few of the regulars were absent today.

"Edgeshot and Ryukyu will not be joining us today," Gang Orca said with a groan as he took a seat in Principal Nezu's office. "They have a prior engagement, so I'll take care of informing them of what will be discussed today."

"The same could be said for Tsukauchi. He's currently working on something with his department and couldn't find the time to join us." All Might added with a nod as he sat in far end of Nezu's desk.

"Very well," Nezu responded with a nod before motioning their police wing to begin the meeting. "Chief Kiriyuuin if you could please start us off."

"Yes sir. First my apologies that it took longer than expected gentlemen," Kaoru began saying as he pulled back his white mane of hair; he looked completely burnt out with dark heavy bags under his eyes and his suit looked unpressed and worn out.

"The Commission is playing it safe when it comes to what the investigation wants to reveal to the public, compared to what it has actually uncovered so far with the USJ. At the moment they have all confirmed that All Might was indeed their main objective according to all of the minor villains we managed to round-up, everything else was secondary."

All Might put his fingers together and bowed his head. Everyone at the USJ had suffered because of him and he barely did anything about it.

"However it isn't the only thing we're dealing with," He added while straightening his tie, "unfortunately with the near collapse of The Eight Precepts of Death there has been an increase in drug trafficking with rival gangs both big and small trying to muscle in and fill in the gap that has opened up in the underworld."

"I hear that," Gang Orca interjected. "The amount of busts I've been involved in for drugs like Trigger in its various forms has been causing a number of headaches for everyone." He let out a bittersweet sigh, "Reminds me of the first wave of the narcotics hitting the scene five years ago. I've personally had to crack some skulls from various small time thugs and even had a run in with some eastern dragon boys that were hanging around in southern phoenix territory...I was sorely disappointed."

"Disappointed that none them could actually fight like Draco Knight I imagine," Best Jeanist commented calmly with a small smirk hidden behind his denim coverings. Reminiscing his time of having to control the two eternal rivals in their homeroom class as their class representative.

"WEAK SHITS! I want a real fight with a true Dragon once again! NONE OF THEM COME CLOSE!"

"Ehem!" Kaoru cleared his throat to get them back on topic. "As I was saying various gangs are currently making a push for territory that belongs to the Eight Precepts of Death," he held up a finger, "however since Overhaul is still in our captivity, is where I fear things can go wrong since Kai Doumeki was chosen to transport Overhaul to Tartarus."

"Are you serious?!" Endeavor exclaimed nearly rising out of his seat; "despite with what happened with Stain?!"

Tensei leaned in, knowing this information already however he was curious about what Gang Orca had said. _'Southern phoenix territory?'_

"Actually it was Kai Doumeki himself who volunteered for the assignment and will personally oversee the field operation."

"_Wait what? Kiriyuuin are you serious?!"_Sir Nighteye asked in disbelief, the same shock was felt by almost everyone in the room; save Tensei.

It was something that never happened, a commission member with the rank of Chief-Superintendent personally going out in the field to lead an operation was just unheard of as most only happened for show in severe cases.

However in those situations the top brass members normally remained in the back of the line and in full view of press to make themselves look good. Kai was doing this for a secret operation in full gear alongside his rank and file.

"Indeed I am," Kaoru answered solemnly. " Despite his age, he's still physically fit compared to most of the commission members and still maintains SWAT level training qualifications with all the standard issue gear, so there technically was no direct objection of him going to the field. Only I don't know when the transport job will actually happen as it has been listed as top-secret, only for Doumeki's staff to have knowledge of it. The only thing I know for sure is that it will happen within the next month."

"Saturday."

The room turned to Tensei Iida, who leaned back into his seat. "It's this upcoming Saturday, six days from now. My source in Doumeki's staff has already confirmed this with me."

Gang Orca threw back his head and gave out a deep booming laugh. "HAHAHA! Then it looks like I'm going as well! I just got the invitation for a secret Saturday operation, yesterday! I'm supposed to report in two days from now!"

"Interesting," Best Jeanist observed, "so we'll be able to confirm if Doumeki really has been involved in releasing someone with ties to this League of Villains or if the league are operating on their own." He looked over to Gang Orca, "He wasn't the leading the operation during the Stain job so that says quite a bit of how serious the man is taking this job."

"If I get so much as a whiff that Doumeki will release Overhaul," he cracked his knuckles, "I will personally beat the ever loving shit out of him."

Best Jeanist rolled his eyes. _'Some things never change.'_

"The general fear right now is that the League will attempt to break out Overhaul in order to quell down the underworld infighting." Kaoru added.

"Makes sense." All Might interjected, "some of our best operations against groups like Yakuza happened during bouts of infighting, made it much easier to obtain evidence and gain leads for future plans when captured grunts begin to grumble with disapproval."

"Unfortunately that is all I got for now, my department has been tasked to continue dealing with these gangs and drug peddlers so I'm bit stretched thin in terms of what I can do for now investigation wise." Kaoru added with a frustrated sigh.

Tensei wanted to speak up about what the Section-Chief left out, regarding the three students...However he knew better than to step on the toes of their highest ranking friend on the police. So instead, he made a mental note to contact Kaoru privately in case there was something else he knew that Hajime didn't and to make sure that Principal Nezu knew at the very least.

"_That is very good information, thank you Chief Kiriyuuin." _Sir Nighteye said from the laptop. _"Now from my end, I have some good news, recently The Neocons have been forced to reshuffle some of the committees they've had a monopoly on for years. This is in part that one of their allied parties had recently split off from their allia-"_

"Get to the point Nighteye, we don't care where the bureaucrats and politicians go just get on with the results." Endeavor said with a huff, his fiery hair starting to blaze with impatience.

Even from the laptop, Sir Nighteye's glare could be felt as Nezu cheekily moved the screen to face the flame hero. _"As I was saying...with this, members of my party got to join some of those committees...and one of them." _He added with a frustrated sigh. _"Joined the committee for the National Diet's finances and discovered a lot of number of oddities in the budget." _

"Sounds like prior committee members might have been cooking the books." Nezu guessed correctly before taking a sip of his tea.

"_Indeed that appears to be the case Principal, if what Representative Yoshi discovered so far is true, then we are looking at a budget deficit of at least a two billion yen*." _

"HOW MUCH?!" Kaoru exclaimed as the rest of the Draco Knight team all reacted in the same matter.

"_And that's just initial estimate, as he is still investigating the budget and is still finding holes, not to mention he needs to find out where the money is going and how it gets there to in order to make sure it stops."_

"Holy shit..."

_"Thankfully this is the evidence we've been looking for gentlemen...proof of Neocon corruption. Once the Representative is done with his audit, we'll have enough proof to launch a full blown public investigation. It has taken us six years, but we've finally struck gold."_

All Might grinned, this was it. Progress _-real progress_ in the investigation to get rid of the corruption and the six-year old truth will be made clear. If all went well, Draco Knight's name could finally be cleared this year!

"How long do you think the audit will take Nighteye?" Best Jeanist inquired as he fixed himself up from his earlier shock.

"_It could be between two to three months at best."_

_'Almost near the end of the first term,' _Nezu thought as he counted the months in his head._ 'We might even be at summer break when it is done.'_

"Stop joking around Nighteye." Endeavor grunted with folded arms, annoyed by the answer.

_"Two to three months." _Nighteye repeated as he held up the same amount of fingers, _"Representative Yoshi has already been encountering resistance from the other committee members who still hold the majority. Then there is the fact that he still has his normal duties to perform as a Representative. Not to mention that there are the other committees to look over for corruption as well. Like investigating the H.U.C and the heroic licensing body. Not to mention the Public Safety Commission who voted for Draco Knight's downfall."_

"And the Police commission needs to be looked over as well." Kaoru added with a firm nod.

"That is critical Endeavor, the sooner we can get some of the foreign pro-heroes who live in the country back on duty the easier it will be to have time to answer bigger calls." Best Jeanist interjected. "Not to mention that a more detailed audit would better to fix at the seams where the system tears, making sure it doesn't happen again."

"Bastards can't hide for much longer." Gang Orca commented as his hand scratched the bottom of his chin.

"_Indeed, and since I don't want to spend the rest of my career in this place,"_ Sir Nighteye said motioning to the office behind him. _"I'd like to make sure that everything is fixed here before I take my leave of it. So I don't have to end up coming back to fix up it again."_

"I think that will be enough for now." Nezu spoke up, "major progress has been made and the holes are slowing being blown open in the hull of the Neocon ship." Nezu placed his paws together as he sat there with quite a serious look on his face. "However, this is where we must act with the most caution and vigilance. The Neocons know that the noose is slowly starting to come around their necks and will surely try their hand to stop themselves from losing power when they hang. We need to make sure that when we compile the evidence it is done in a legal manner that the courts cannot dismiss easily and we should be ready to fight a full-blown legal battle when the time comes."

Nezu gave a knowing glance to Kaoru; unknown to everyone else, except All Might. The Chief arrived earlier before the meeting to share some very disturbing information about three students. Given that it only had circumstantial evidence relating to the Draco Knight investigation.

But the Mouse-Bear Rodent knew that just the one accusation could ruin the life of an innocent if he made an incorrect decision; assuming that there was a traitor at all.

The room began to clear out as the Pro-Heroes and Police Chief save for Tensei as he turned back at the entrance to see that his father-in-law hadn't moved, which made him nervous, the tension had been thick from before the meeting and shown by his general attitude throughout. Now whatever was eating at Endeavor was finally coming to ahead.

"Father we-" Tensei tried to intervene as he approached but the fiery man wasn't having it today.

"I'm staying for a moment longer, Tensei." Endeavor interrupted flatly, looking at All Might and the Principal. "There is something I need to address regarding my son's education here. Wait for me outside, this won't be long."

Tensei hesitated but knew Endeavor needed to get it off his chest. So he compiled and made his exit out of UA. It would be nearly half an hour later when Endeavor returned to the limo they used to get here. The man was pale and silent as all he could say was, "Get us back to my Agency."

Their driver quickly bowed his head and turned on the car.

Tensei could see that the man was shaken, which only made Tensei curious. What kind of conversation did Endeavor have with All Might and Principal Nezu? that would leave him so stunned?

"Tensei," the veteran pro-hero spoke in such a soft tone, Tensei wouldn't have believed it came from his mouth if he hadn't seen it come from his very lips.

"I can't tell what you about what happened in there...all I know is that we need to get this case done as soon as possible."

What Tensei didn't know is that Enji Todoroki had just learned of All Might's greatest secret and now knew that the rank of number one wasn't far away from his grasp. The end of an Era was coming and when it arrived they all had to be ready for it.

To many All Might was almost like a god, admired and respected around the world, but common people often forget that in the end, he was still a mortal man and mortal men grow old, get sick and eventually die one day as all mortal men do.

Though as much as Endeavor coveted that spot on the charts, he knew that the world still needed All Might to shine brightly, and now he knew that light was dying and sooner or later;

He had to be ready for it.

* * *

Izuku and Inko sat on their knees upon the mat in quiet prayer as the incense burned, with the tiny offering of a salmon riceball placed in front of the marble white gravestone. The noon hour sun shined overhead the recently cleaned grave making it nearly glow a pearly white marking the good work the two boys had done in such a short amount of time. A mark that Inko was grateful for as she knelt in prayer especially since Katsuki had volunteered to help Izuku clean it.

_'Oh Hisashi...I wish you could have been here to see everything now.' _Inko said in her prayers, _'I know that you would have loved to see Izuku and Katsuki at UA, making all sorts of new friends. I also know you would have been delighted by our recent edition to the household.'_

Inko turned to see in the off distance was Ochako and Eri taking a walk around the cemetery grounds, unfortunately there wasn't enough space for everyone to offer their annual prayers together so they decided to take turns in pairs to offer their respects to the deceased pro-hero. Ochako insisted that they would be last, out of the respect for everyone else came that actually knew Hisashi in life.

_'Mitsuki and Masaru are sorry they couldn't come visit you, but Ryuko, and Shinya are here. Along with Katsuki, Yuu and someone who's a big fan of yours Hisashi...could you believe it? Even now you still have fans!' _Inko breathed out a silent sigh.

_'I found your final letter honey...I'm so sorry I never delivered it like I promised I would do...know I don't know how I would be even able to deliver your final message to Kai...I maybe could try contacting Saya? Unlike Kai, Saya never seemed to share the same sentiments of whatever happened between the both of you thirteen years ago.'_

Inko looked at grave of her deceased husband.

* * *

_**Hisashi Midoriya**_

"_**Find comfort and strength within courage and love."**_

_**D.O.B. 194 Q.E. - D.O.D. 228Q.E.****_

* * *

She turned to face her son, who still seemed into be deep in his own prayers.

_'I swear I will deliver it for you, like I swore to you on that night. The final night that I saw you alive, I make sure that Kai gets it. Whatever happens from there is left to heaven.'_

"Are you all done Izuku?" Inko asked quietly as not to disturb the peace of the hallowed grounds. Izuku turned to face his mother, looking almost serene as he answered.

"Almost...well I'm saving the last thing I want to say, when Ochako and Eri comes to see him. I can't be rude and not introduce them right?" It made Inko smile warmly, Izuku was growing more and more confident in himself and she couldn't be happier for it.

"Okay, I'll go get Ryuko and Shinya, while you check up on Katsuki and Yuu alright?"

Izuku hummed his response as the two rose up together.

* * *

"Oh my goodness, she's such a widdle angel!" Alex exclaimed looking at a picture of Eri during the petting zoo segment from the last night's episode of Animal Buddies.

Much to annoyance of his two trainees, especially Reiko who already had her fill of Eri during her daily surfing on the internet; the girl had pretty much set the internet on fire with pledges to protect her.

Hitoshi however hoped that Alex was too distracted with his phone as they continued their assault on their trainer.

Alex however even when using his phone, continued to skillfully dodge, block or countered almost every hit with his unused hand. "And those fluffy bunny ears on her head, oh god, it just a cuteness overload!" Alex said almost mockingly with a large shit eating grin as he kicked away Hitoshi's last attempt to strike him.

They had been at this for the last few hours; Alex wanted them to actually land twenty successful strikes.

So far they only managed six.

"Now Yanagi!" Hitoshi yelled out as he quickly got up from the ground.

"Right!"

Hitoshi and Reiko moved for another double team attack, this time going for a pincer move.

Reiko coming up to his right with an assortment of floating objects she was using as makeshift weapons and threw them, while Hitsoshi charged again with a quarterstaff on hand, unfortunately neither were skilled enough in execute the plan, as all Alex needed to do was take a few extra steps toward the Mind Binder and grabbed the staff with his spare hand before he could even swing it, pivoting the boy to face Reiko and use him like a human shield against the projectiles and forcing Reiko to back off.

"Just look at that adorable little face!" Alex said placing the cellphone screen up to Hitoshi's lightly bruised face as he got into his personal bubble. Hitoshi only had a mere nanoseconds to see a white haired girl with blood red eyes and a small horn on the right size of her forehead dressed in a dark red overall dress with large bunny ears holding a tiny white bunny rabbit.

Only for him to then feel a tug at the other end of his quarterstaff.

"Oh shi-" Was all Hitoshi could say before he was flung overhead by Alex who used the quarterstaff as leverage and landed right on top of Reiko who had just gotten close enough to strike.

The American took a few steps back, switching his phone to camera mode and took a quick picture.

"Oh lord! You two should control yourselves!" He exclaimed with a wolf whistle, "You know there is a time and place where you guys can make out in private right?"

The two liaisons had basically landed face to face, they looked at each before looking at Alex then back to each other as both their faces had a dashes of red appear plain as day, made the two scramble to get off each and get back up, unable to look at each other from the embarrassment.

"Aww...and here I was hoping to add another ship to my list," Alex teased with that same grin now resting Hitoshi's quarterstaff on his right shoulder, and still holding his cellphone with his left hand.

"Silence pedo," Hitoshi commented as he got into position again, red tinted face notwithstanding.

"Whoa there cowboy," Alex stood as he held up the staff threateningly. "Them's fighting words, ain't no one touching that little angel inappropriately."

"Then why you so interested with her?" Reiko questioned still eyeing the American with suspicion, while still recovering from her own blush.

Alex defended his spot by saying, "This is Eri, and she's the girl who saved my life when I was in a coma. I'm pretty sure you guys have seen her here before." He added as he pulled up an article of last night's episode again that featured a picture of the girl in question. The two liaisons looked at the screen, after a few moments it was Reiko who answered.

"She was with 1-A...with Draco Knight's son right?"

"Yes indeedie," Alex answered as he put his phone away. "I think she is his adopted sister? I honestly don't remember all of the details other than she came here for a bit to do a quirk evaluation with Mr. Aizawa."

"Is that even safe to do? Draco Knight's family adopting a kid?" Hitoshi observed, remembering the raised concerns in regards to Izuku in aftermath of the USJ.

"Midoriya is an alright kid," He quirked up an eyebrow, "don't tell me, you've been avoiding him now?" Alex questioned with a slightly sterner look. "I heard from my former classmates that a lot of the general class population has been avoiding him lately, moving to the other side of the hallways, sitting as far away from him at the cafeteria and other things of the like."

The indigo haired teen simply shrugged his shoulders. "To be honest, aside from our joint classes, we tend to avoid the hero course classes in general," Hitoshi answered honestly before getting back into a defensive position and adding, "so it isn't like we avoid Midoriya on purpose...but it does mean less competition for us though."

Alex's stern gaze turned into one of confusion. "Hold-on, time out," He called out halting their training, "What do you mean?"

Hitoshi and Reiko looked at each again, as if thinking about what to say. Then, with a small nod between them it was Reiko who answered first; relaxing her stance.

"Several of the non-hero course students plan to drop out of the Sports festival before it even starts, some out of protest but mostly out of fear of Midoriya."

"...Seriously?" Was all what Alex was able to say incredulously as his eyes widened.

"Seriously, but like I said, I'm not going to complain since among those dropouts are some of our own rivals for the liaison spots who kept saying they would replace one of us; they've pretty much shut-up about taking our spots now that Midoriya's secret is out," Hitoshi interjected with a rare smile.

"Interesting..."Alex said quietly to himself as he leaned on Hitoshi's stolen quarterstaff, _'Think Principal Nezu might need to hear this.'_

"I know that the business course students almost never bother to participate in the festival," Alex couldn't help but smirk at that, "and most of the Gen Eds tend to hang back unless they're liaisons or gunning for liaison or hero course spots," Alex commented remembering his own experiences throughout his tenure, "But for a planned mass drop-out like this before the festival even starts? That's completely unheard of..."

"The vice-rep from Class 1-B has been making a big deal of it," Reiko added on with a wave of her hands, "he's been stirring up the crowd using his friends in general studies to call for a boycott of the Sport Festival if they don't get their way of being permitted to drop out for safety concerns."

"That's the only annoying part, since it could interfere with our possible promotions to the Hero-course," Hitoshi sighed as he finished up.

_'OK...Nezu is really going to want to hear about this.' _Alex thought. _'Class 1-B's vice rep...who was that again? Damn it I'm still having trouble remembering some things from the past couple weeks. No matter, Nezu will know who it is.'_

"Alright guys," Alex checked his wristwatch, "I think we're done for today," much to the disappointed looks on the faces of his trainees.

"It's still early though." Hitoshi commented looking at the barely overhead noon sun.

"This Sunday was only a half-day given that we only officially started your training yesterday," Alex answered, "Sundays are your planned rest days so you don't overwork yourselves. However since tomorrow is the start of golden week holiday from school," he stretched out his arms, "we'll continue our training at the UA's Omega site gym, Nezu and Aizawa gave me the okay to use it during the week." He finished up with a hidden wicked grin.

Reiko sighed with some relief as she rubbed her shoulders while Hitoshi though not as tired seemed to accept the answer.

Alex however didn't want them to feel like the rest of the day was a complete waste so he threw in a rather generous offer.

"But if you guys want, I can take you both out to eat and we can talk a little more about your plans for the sports festival, you know get some early planning while using me a resource...plus I'll cover the tab." He added, he had received his final paycheck from Comicman, '_With Anima throwing a little something extra'; _in addition to the TV contract bonus for his time on Animal Buddies and he was golden for his return back to the states.

Both trainees seemed to gain a spark in their eyes when they processed the offer made to them.

"I could eat." Reiko breathed out, thinking on what she would like to get for lunch.

"And I could definitely use some pointers for the festival."

"Excellent! Let's clean up and hit the showers, once we're all refreshed, we'll meet up and head out." Alex proclaimed, hoping to gather more information on this possible protest of the Sports Festival because of Izuku.

He owed UA, and the Midoriya's for saving his butt so he would be damned if he didn't help them back when he could.

* * *

"Would you like a drink?" Kai asked as a rather drowsy Ryu entered the room. There was a full tray with a pot of strong coffee that he could smell from this distance.

Ryu seated himself in across from the desk of his adoptive father who had caught him before he had left to go visit his foster siblings. It was strange, the two had barely spoken to each since the USJ incident, and their relationship had come to a strange turning point. Kai had become less cold toward him and Ryu, in appreciation for when the man and his wife who helped him around the house at the height of his recovery, had been less snarky and more respectful even in private.

Still, business was business and Ryu didn't know what to expect now that Saya had returned to work and they were alone once again.

"Yeah...I could go for a cup." Ryu answered cautiously, while Kai simply hummed in response and poured him a cup. Ryu accepted and took a sip of the bitter drink, it did help wake him up from the lack of sleep thanks to the nightmares and stress.

"Yesterday, I got out of the meeting with The Commission, and many things were discussed," Kai added as he held up a file copy, "Including you," he slid it across to the boy, "I have no doubt that UA will be informed and your past ties to your father will be known now."

Ryu put down the cup and reached for the file with some hesitation. Opening it he could see the report of the night when the disgraced Representative Takumi Saito committed suicide twelve years ago; burning down his own estate with only one survivor found in the wreckage.

Ryu sighed with relief. It was nothing new save for the added notes that the ties could be linked to a possible attempted assassination at the USJ.

"However, it also revealed our ties to you so UA will most likely be keeping a closer eye on you. I have no friends at UA and that idiotic move that Representative Kimura made against your American upperclassman using H.U.C only made things worse."

Kai added pulling up the news reports on his phone and showing them to Ryu. The feed showed headlines links like;

* * *

_**Neocon favor continues to fall!**_

_**The New Democracy Party splits from the Neocon alliance! Neocons forced to reshuffle several committees with other rival parties to maintain power!**_

_**American Ambassador Sarah Diaz continues to condemn the continued mistreatment of foreign Pro-Heroes and Foreign Exchange Hero Course students! Seeks added appeals to the Prime Minister for review.**_

_**Representative and Big Neocon boss Hideyoshi Anno has refused to comment on growing concerns!**_

* * *

"You're not the only one that UA will be keeping an eye on however, your friend Kaminari is on the list as well," Kai continued, sliding another folder to Ryu who looked at the man questioningly before looking the folder with the boy's name on it.

"Wait, why Denki Kaminari?" Ryu asked to be sure he was seeing and hearing things correctly. "Why the fuck would UA be keeping an eye on him?"

"Read it the file if you want to know why."

Ryu looked at the file, eyes widening as he read the initial report. "Wait...there's no fucking way!"

"There is no solid evidence to prove it, but given his own past. It is possible." Kai commented solemnly looking at boy with a piercing gaze. Ryu shook his head almost wanting to laugh, he knew it wasn't true. It couldn't be true.

"Kaminari is a good guy," Ryu paused, "and I mean this in the nicest way possible...the guy is a massive idiot," couldn't help but scoff, "there is just no way that he could be a spy for the villains that attacked us. No matter who is the father is, trust me...I know you got the wrong guy." And Ryu slid Denki's file back to Kai.

"And believe it or not, I agree with you and right now the Commission is more or less convinced that the bounty placed on your heads was more a ploy for revenge, but we needed to consider all possibilities."

"Revenge?"

"An example could be your ties with your dead father."

Ryu actually chuckled upon hearing this tidbit, "My old man's ghost will haunt me until the day I die. What else is new?"

"Kaminari's villainous family history," Kai grunted, "And in the case of this boy," he slid one last file to him.

"Now, I'm personally not too familiar with him, but I know he is the nephew of one the higher ranked Representatives of the Neocon movement. These could all be valid reasons for villains to have a grudge against one or more of you."

Ryu opened the file and was immediately annoyed by the picture that was featured. "Oh that pretty boy fuck from 1-B? Wait how the hell did I not know about this?" Ryu questioned as he now looked at Kai with an accusatory look.

"The Mizuoji family isn't directly involved in politics," Kai took a sip of coffee, "but they are a rather wealthy and influential family much like the Todoroki and Yaoyorozu families," Kai answered without skipping a beat.

"Only their families aren't aligned to the Neocon movement."

"But his is, so he is to be left alone," Kai warned, "The Neocons are in a lot of hot water right now and since our relationship as father and son is public now." He held up a finger, "so you should avoid pissing off that family as much as possible."

Ryu nodded, if he was to keep all of his plans in order, then he would need to play ball with a bunch of blue bloods as annoying as that sounded to him.

"Which brings me to my end point, The Sports Festival," Kai leaned forward. "What are your plans for it?"

Ryu drained the remainder of his coffee before answering.

"I don't care about being a pro-hero so I'm not concerned about gaining a top level internship so I was planning to just laying low, pretend to do my best and most likely just fail during the second round where most hero course students tend to lose; I'll lose on purpose," Ryu motioned for Kai to refill his cup, continuing as Kai began to do so.

"You said that UA would likely be keeping a more watchful eye on me...so if that's the case then it would just be best for me to lay low so why not do that?" Ryu finished up and took another drink from his refilled cup.

"Good answer." Kai responded with a nod as he placed the pot down and leaned back in his seat. "We're almost done here, but I wanted to address one last thing with you."

"What?" Ryu questioned with suspicion upon hearing Kai's tone of voice become surprisingly gentle.

"I want to say I'm sorry that you got mixed up in this." Kai said sincerely looking back that the boy, it was only recently that Kai had realized that he might have been more harsh and cold toward the boy due him being a constant reminder of his past. Even how Saya had treated him, was a painful reminder of the man. Ryu really did seem like Hisashi's ghost. Taking the man's place and not just the man's original last name, but even the guest bedroom in his house, when he had first moved out of his cousin's house.

Given how the two never reconciled since Hisashi's confession that night thirteen years ago, it was easy to see Ryu as a continuation of that grudge. Yet it wasn't until the last meeting he had with Hideyoshi that in hindsight Ryu hadn't really done anything to warrant such treatment. The original snarky and snappy Ryu he had met was clearly a response to his own initial attitude towards him.

"Are you alright old man?" Ryu responded now confused as hell, not knowing where the man was going with this, again Kai ignored the comment focusing on what he needed to get off his chest.

"When I read the USJ report which included the statements from the classmates you saved...I was surprised by your actions."

_'Shit,' _Ryu thought, was he going to be angry for saving them? It was the chance to really screw over UA politically and he fucked it up.

"You did a good job...it was an idiotic move to risking your life like that...but you did a good job."

Ryu's brow narrowed with confusion, did he hear that right?

"Pardon?"

"I said you did a good job." Kai repeated himself with the same soft expression on his face.

Yep, Ryu was really confused now. The boy placed the coffee cup on a saucer and placed them on the desk before answering.

"But I fucked up! If I had let them die then the Neocons would be better off politically right?"

"It wouldn't have been worth it. You're all just children," Kai admitted, the lives of children became too precious to just throw away for a simple advantage, the only reason he accepted Ryu for this job was because Hideyoshi had forced his hand.

"When we first met, I honestly thought of you as more of a drone, ready to follow Hideyoshi to the letter. You gave the appearance of a sneak and a cheat," Kai hummed. "You proved me wrong when you stepped in and saved their lives despite there being no real benefit for you. And as far I know you haven't been recognized for this act of valor...so I will at the very least."

"You're making me far sound more noble than I was," Ryu grumbled with folded arms. He was no hero; Kai had it right the first time. He was a sneak, a cheat, a bastard who had to claw his way up in the world.

"I...did consider it you know?" The boy admitted shamefully sighing as he looked down. "Leave them there to die, how could I be praised when I had to think it over? A decent person wouldn't have hesitated."

"You didn't let them die. That's the difference between thought and actions. You can think shameful things, but it is your actions that prove your worth," Kai answered him, "Your actions saved people, be proud of that."

_Remember what you are. The real you._

_**Remember who you are. The real you.**_

"I simply concluded that my action would have been the best result for everyone," Ryu retorted with a lie, trying to sell the point by scoffing at Kai's words.

"You're talking about your life insurance policy aren't you? Was that why you were willing to throw your life away like that?" Kai leaned forward on his desk again as if trying to gauge the truth from the boy.

"If I croaked everyone would have been happy," Ryu answered with the most logical excuse he could think of on the fly, "UA loses the spy watching them, you get rid of me, the Neocons get a rallying cry and...my actual family gets secured financially." Ryu seemed a little more comfortable with this lie, wanting to detach from the actual emotions he had felt at that moment. "Plus...it was one life for the price of six it was just the logical answer," He added as if that were icing on a cake.

"Your foster family wouldn't have been happy, Saya wouldn't have been happy." Kai answered back with an exhausted sigh, making Ryu freeze as he was reminded of the fact, "And I wouldn't have been happy with that result, and I'm not referring to you as me losing a spy," Kai hummed again. "Circumstances aside, I'm still legally your father and...It would pain me to see you die in such a manner."

Ryu face went blank as he processed what the man had said.

_'What the fuck is going on?!'_

It seemed like sheer madness to Ryu, first Saya and now Kai was trying to cozy up to him? Was it a trick? Was it real?

_He lies, they're all liars._

_**He's telling the truth. You know he has nothing to gain from lying to you.**_

_He stands to gain a loyal new pawn._

_**Yet he knows you're not just a pawn. He said it himself.**_

Ryu shook his head trying to collect his own thoughts; trying to make up his own mind.

"You have a family now...all I ask is that you consider that before making any more rash actions," Kai finished up before turning his chair around, "I'm going on a long assignment, two days from now and don't expect to be back for at least a week so...would you please take of Saya for me?"

Ryu sat there speechless. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words would come out. His mind seemed focused on one word that Kai had said.

**Family.**

_Stop with your delusions. They will ruin you._

_**There is nothing wrong with wanting a home.**_

_'A home that I know I will never be allowed to have when everything is said and done.'_

That one word had forced him into silence, no matter how many times he tried; he just couldn't find a proper response. In end Ryu simply stood up and managed to say.

"Yes sir." In a flat neutral tone, he got from his seat as aimed to leave Kai's office, when the man who spoke up again one last time.

"Be careful if you visit Anno's office...I fear that his growing paranoia may soon drive him to do something extremely stupid." He warned from behind his chair.

Ryu looked at his hand that had reached the door handle. Again with the same flat neutral tone he simply said, "Understood," and walked out the door.

He would have a lot to think about for the rest of the day.

* * *

Ochako walked alone in the cemetery grounds, having left Eri with Izuku who had some snacks for them to share. She would have liked to join in especially since Izuku had brought in Mochi for them, but she wanted to check something out. Time was limited since Katsuki and Yuu were already making their offerings to Hisashi's grave and the whole thing only took about ten, fifteen minutes tops.

It didn't hurt that she was also avoiding Ryuko's teasing from earlier this morning...as comfortable as waking up close to Izuku and Eri, it was also rather embarrassing.

Ochako had walked to the far side of the graveyard where she was with Eri earlier. She had seen something that caught her eye, but wasn't sure if it was a trick of the eyes. Walking down the stony pathway into the older graves with some having been left unkempt by the families who had long since stopped visiting or possibly long since died out.

'I know it was here somewhere...' She thought to herself as began seeing gravestones with more unique designs. Some were made out of multiple colored stones or featured beautifully elaborate images of various creatures both real and mythical.

These weren't common for average Japanese gravestones which were often simple and small in design. Only people with a lot of money or a lot of clout could have gone the extra mile for these kinds of graves. It was like making a large statement of about who these people once were in life.

'Here it is...'

Ochako stopped in front of the grave she found earlier that one that made her pause and come back when she had the moment. It was almost funny, one reason she had come here earlier with Eri was because of the unique graves that dotted this section of the cemetery.

Yet this grave, while larger than some of the others, was far more plain in appearance which seems odd as it was surrounded by gravestones that primarily featured dragons of both western and eastern designs. As well as birds, several kinds of birds in fact, but perhaps the one thing that surprised her the most were the names on the grave.

* * *

_**Keiko Kasei**_

_**D.O.B 174 Q.E. – D.O.D 207 Q.E**_

_**Suzaku Kasei**_

_**D.O.B 146 Q.E. - D.O.D 212 Q.E**_

* * *

She remembered the moment she saw the surname.

_**Kasei.**_

That strange surname that kept coming up in the strangest of places, it wasn't a common surname to begin with, especially not with that Kanji.

**仮性*****

A kanji that could be read as _**false**_ or _**fake**_ wasn't something that she would have normally paid attention to but that name had come up one too many times for her to ignore now.

Ryu was case zero.

That boy wasn't anything special and aside from looking like Draco Knight, but there wasn't much to his personality she could really latch onto. All she really knew about him was that he was a fairly nice person, and if what Eri and Fumikage had said about him was true at the USJ, he was a brave...if not a bit of a pervert as was discovered by the girls when he and his friends were caught with a questionable manga during lunch on the day he returned to UA.

It wasn't until she learned that Hisashi's original surname had been Kasei that something in her head clicked. Finding the same surname in Draco Knight's hometown temple graveyard seemed too much for it to be a mere coincidence now,

'But who do I ask about it?'

She may have been largely accepted by the Midoriya and Bakugou households, but she didn't want to be too forward about these sensitive topics so rapidly in order; remembering the sadness of Inko's face when she admitted about Hisashi's terrible childhood. Ryuko wasn't at the house often enough and was often with Inko. And forget asking any of the Bakugous, not after that whole song and dance she had do for the aftermath of the USJ.

As she continued to think she noticed something strange about the gravestone, a strange gap that spaced the two names. She crouched down and gently bushed some of the heavier grime and dust that covered the spaces. Only to be interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Mama," Ochako let out a squeak as she jumped at the little voice and turned to see Eri tilting her head in concern who then said, "Papa says it's time to see his papa."

At this, Ochako let a small chuckle as she held to her chest.

"Oh Eri...you scared there for a...moment." Ochako managed to say between breaths and bits of her continued laughter. Eri unfortunately didn't seem pleased with being the one who scared her surrogate mother, her welling tears were evident of that.

"I'm sorry mama...I didn't mean...to."

"Oh no sweetie, I didn't mean it like that!" Ochako swiftly said, sobering up from her initial reaction. They quickly learned that certain phrases or descriptions that Eri could perceive as negative about her was a quick way to set her off. Being called scary was one of them. She quickly scooped up the small child in her arms, and held her tightly.

"I'm sorry I meant to say that you simply surprised me Eri." Ochako whispered reassuringly as she gently rubbed her back. Thankfully Eri seemed to be soothed quickly, pacified by the warm feeling in her heart.

"N-not sc-scary?" Eri managed to ask with a couple sniffs of her nose.

"No, no…not scary at all sweetie. How could I be scared of an angel like you?" Ochako cooed as she began walking her back to Izuku, she didn't want to worry him and keep everyone else waiting. The gravestones were left forgotten with no one to read the additional markings that had been hidden on it.

* * *

_**\+ E**_

_**Keiko Kasei**_

_**D.O.B 174 Q.E. – D.O.D 207 Q.E**_

_**S**_

_**Suzaku Kasei**_

_**D.O.B 146 Q.E. - D.O.D 212 Q.E**_

* * *

_**Green and Pink.**_

For the last few days his nightmares has featured haunting flashes of green and pink; colors began to sicken him whenever they crossed his mind for they reminded him of the two brats who had kept him from his prize. He stirred awake to the buzzing of machines that produced nauseating beeps here and there; reminding him that life was still beating within him. He was laid flat on his back with the blaring white lights above, a constant reminder of his failure to get his prize back.

_**Eri.**_

Overhaul stirred as the young girl began swimming in his thoughts anger pulsing as he remembered that not only had she slipped away from him twice and that he had he been outplayed by a psychopath, but he was defeated by mere children! Children who stole Eri away! The very girl who was the key to all of his plans of curing humanity of the plague and getting the ultimate revenge against his long dead master, that girl's own grandfather.

_**The Rat.**_

The machines began to beep louder and more rapidly as his blood pressure began to skyrocket. That was the only title worthy of the son of a bitch; his former master. On that night six years ago, when the man he respected turned into a government witness was the night Overhaul had decided to make his move.

It was his move to seize power, a chance to rid him all that stood in his way, the Rat, the Emperor and the Heroes who were there that day, and until recently he thought that only All Might had escaped that night, but he was wrong. The Emperor was still alive and still calling the shots from within the shadows.

_**The Emperor.**_

**All for One**, the one who made even the greatest of Yakuza, The Four Cardinal Kings bend the knee and brought to heel under his banner. It was why he was referred as the Emperor of Darkness, it was he who led the biggest decline of Yakuza influence throughout the years in the underworld with the unwitting help of All Might, with only the Kings managing to hold on to bigger pieces of the underworld pie that they were permitted to have, yet it wasn't enough. As all of the Kings had conspired one way or another to one day rid themselves of the Emperor.

However this would always bring up one key critical question. When the Emperor of Darkness was gone who would dare lay the claim to lead them all? To him the answer was obvious, it should be himself. It was his desire to be that leader as he was the heir to The Eight Precepts of Death and the one who had a clear image to restore the Yakuza way and lead to a new era of cleansing the population of the sickness that plagued most of them.

_**The Heir**_.

Yet...his plan wasn't flawless however as the Cardinal Kings often made their own power moves to make themselves bigger than The Eight Precepts of Death. A major part of his plan called for the use of the quirk destroying bullets he had been trying to develop with Eri's blood in order to even the playing field, especially when it came to dealing with the Western and the Northern kings.

Those two gangs had been making the most public moves of trying to gain more strength with their leaders having access to extremely powerful quirks; not a people to be taken lightly.

Yet it was the South and East that was the bigger mystery that always confused Overhaul. The South still hadn't named a new boss, no new Phoenix King has yet to be crowned for the last thirteen years, why?

When other gangs, including his own made grasps for southern territory, the Eastern Dragons would block them and protect the South, why? The Dragons could have overtaken the South at any time so why didn't they? Even with Tomura calling the shots, there would be no way that he could have that much influence over them. No there had to be another player on this game board, one with ties to the Yakuza who had the right background...but who?

"Come on now! You have a patient to supervise." A voice with a sickening sweet tone called out as the door to his holding cell opened and closed; snapping Overhaul out of his thoughts. Two sets of footsteps making their way closer and closer to him, until two figures loomed over him, a policeman and a nurse, or so he thought at first.

_'Must be here to check over my blood pressure...' _Overhaul thought as he steadied his breathing, making those nauseating machines calm their insensate beeping. From the corner of his eyes, he could see that the nurse was prepping a syringe; filled with what Overhaul wasn't sure as the nurse was partly turned away from him, while the officer with blood red eyes got to close to Overhaul's face, with a smile that only filled him with a familiar dread.

"Ah Overhaul! Don't worry, don't worry, we're friends!" The officer exclaimed, "Just let the nurse do her job and you'll feel much better!"

_'Her?' _Overhaul questioned mentally as he looked what appeared to be a male nurse came into view, was ready to inject. He was too weak to move and resist, too weak to even speak. He felt a pinch as the needle that went into his arm, it was only then he realized that the needle wasn't injecting something into him. No, it was draining blood out of him.

"Remember Himiko, we need to balance his humor**** of blood so we can't take too much!" The officer said with a chuckle, "of course our own dear plague doctor would know all about the humors no?" He added looking down on Overhaul, leaning into the side of his face. Overhaul grimaced and hissed as the man invaded his personal space, his breath touching his very skin; causing painful hives to break out on its surface.

"Next Saturday, Tomura will be sending our brother," he motioned to himself and the nurse, "To free you. In the meanwhile we're just collecting an advance on your payment for the service. Don't worry though." He smacked Overhaul's shoulder;"the blood will be going to a good cause heheeheh." He whispered with a wheezing laugh.

_'Brother? Shigaraki has siblings?'_

"I'm...done...Mimicry." The nurse said with a deep voice, yet meekly voice.

"Oh good! Just keep calm Overhaul; we can't have you strain yourself before you can get back into the action. Until then take care." The officer said pulling away from him with a small tip of his hat, all the while Overhaul managed to get a glance at the cop's nametag when it flashed against the lights above.

_'Nishimoto...Tomura's inside man...he did say he had contacts within the cops.'_

"Come on Himiko, I only have enough clout to give us a few more minutes, we need to be going or we'll get caught." The officer said motioning the nurse who looked like his skin was beginning to drip off, "Oh shit! Your makeup is running up already? I swear getting rid of your blood lust was one of the worst things to happen to you! Oh well you lose some, you win some I suppose."

Overhaul groaned with annoyance with the officer's mannerisms, grateful that the two were leaving.

_'And I thought that Shigaraki was annoying.' _

Still this was good news help was coming, soon he would be free and have another chance to get what he sought. His thoughts turned to that green haired brat, Draco Knight's kid, maybe it was fate that the two would clash and when he was out would clash again. Once he got rid of Tomura, he would make sure that Eri wouldn't far from grasp with that boy and girl from the USJ would shortly follow. He would force Eri to watch him obliterate the two that would teach her...indeed that would teach her the true meaning of fear.

Or least that is what he thought.

* * *

**Author's Commentary.**

Two Billion Yen* Approx 18.3 Million USD at the time of writing.

Q.E.**: Most fics that established a calendar year for MHA, tend to do the whole 22XX thing. In my case, I believe that quirks would have been such a shake up to the status quo that, the Era was changed to reflected this.

The Calendar now operates with B.Q.E (Before Quirk Era) and Q.E (Quirk Era) replacing both the religious and secular versions of A.D (Anno Domini/ Year of Our Lord) B.C. (Before Christ) and C.E (Common Era) B.C.E (Before Common Era)

And for added details the Calendar was change from July of 2014 (The year MHA was first published on Shonen Jump.) As Year 0 of the QE calendar.

It is currently April of 234 Q.E, in the story.

Kasei*** I spend ages looking for the correct name I could use for this surname. There are several ways and words that one could use in the Japanese language to say "Fake, False, etc."

Kasei was the closest one that was quite uncommon and sounded like a name. It is also an ironic name, if you knew the meaning of the name of every characters with the last name Kasei.

**** Humors: **Humorism** was once the most popular theory of western based medicine that was based on four human elements: **blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile**. It was believed that illness was caused by an unbalance of one or most or these humors. This was still the most popular theory next to the Miasma theory that disease was spread by bad air, which is why Plague Doctors (The mask that Overhaul's beak mask is based on) wore to prevent bad air from being inhaled.

That's all for now folks. The next chapter. Chapter XXXII: Golden Week will be out as soon as possible.

As always with lots of love.

_**-X**_


	33. Golden Week Part 1 (New version)

Welp I feel completely horrible for the lack of a proper update since MAY 10TH?!  
I have failed hard to keep my promises and for that I apologize.

For those of you who remember I live in the US and also remember that I'm a healthcare worker...that also happens to live in one of the hardest hit states in the country. COVID-19 was the primary cause of the last time I had to do a major league delay.

And this was no different, however there was another factor in delaying the next chapter, the solution of using the Mini-chapter to fix major pacing issue turned out to be incorrect and only served to make certain things more difficult to relay information.

SO I decided to say FUCK IT and redo the Golden Week Chapters which will now be split into Three parts so I can really give every scene the attention it needs and not feel rushed or slow when it comes to pacing.

This is the new version of Chapter 32 which contains new scenes not in the original and with some tweaks to improve grammar and spelling issues that came up.  
The Mini Chapter which should be removed by this time this update his live will be integrated with the new version of Chapter 33 with Chapter 34 finishing up Golden Week chapters and I've already started work on Chapter 35 so we can finally get back to UA proper.

I'm sorry for the grand delay only to give such a lack luster update, but after receive several PMs asking if I was cancelling, or sick or dead etc. I felt the need to try and reassure everyone that I am alive and yes I'm still working on this story.

Life has been stressful, I've had close calls with COVID-19 exposure, but the times I have been tested have returned with negative results (which is good) however I have lost co-workers both temporarily and permanently in the worst cases due to COVID-19, which does place greater strain on forcing us to overwork time to keep up with our patients needs so please understand that I do try to update as quickly as possible.

I'm still human, I do get burned out, and I do sometimes need to do other things to entertain myself and keep my sanity. (Deadly Premonition 2 just came out and I've been dying to play it, but I've been working on getting this updated instead!) Plus there is also my actual novel that is still in the works so yeah I'm always doing something, but this will have a good priority.

Part 2 is nearly complete (Really trying to catch grammar and spelling errors along with a dealing with a plot hole that came up) Part 3 is nearly all action that I'm just trying to refine given the constructive criticism I had received before on Action scenes. And finally I'm still working on doing all the fixes for the older chapters to make them more streamlined. The next big batch of those fixes will be uploaded once we finished the Golden Week Chapters.

Now if there wasn't anything else! Please enjoy the new version of chapter 32 and look forward to more coming as soon as possible.

* * *

Any Original Characters unless specified is owned by yours truly. However I could care less about them and allow anyone to use them in their own fan fiction projects if they so wish. A.K.A (OC's be damned)

My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Shueisha. Published and licensed by Shonen Jump, Viz Media, and Funimation.  
Please support the official release of this amazing series.

* * *

_**My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight**_

_**Saga I: Dusk **_

_**Arc III: The Sports Festival**_

_**Chapter XXXII: Golden Week Part 1**_

* * *

"**_Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." _ **

_**-Leo Buscaglia**_

* * *

_**Monday**_

Kai walked down that familiar path alone early that spring morning with a small bouquet of Gladiolus flowers in his arm. He had left his personal guard by the entrance as a crowd would disturb the peace that was to be expected here. He had debated about bring Saya along with him, but ultimately didn't have the courage to do so.

Instead he simply went alone.

This might be his last chance to visit before the operation would come into full swing, and depending on how the mission went, this could be his last chance; but he hasn't much time so he needed to make the most of it.

It was strange walking down these steps again like he had done that one cold winter night all those years ago when he looked for that familiar dark hair and golden yellow eyes. He hadn't been here since then and until about two weeks ago he had never once considered ever visiting again; his own family grave was in a different cemetery after all.

Yet now of all times he felt almost compelled to come to these hallowed grounds.

"It's been a long time Hisashi." Kai finally spoke to the silent stone of Hisashi Midoriya's grave, gently placing the flowers on top of it. The stone remained quiet, tall and proud as it shone from its recent upkeep. "How long has it been since we truly last spoke with each other?" He continued as though the silent stone answered back.

"Twelve years? No," Kai shook his head, "thirteen years now." He corrected himself as he knelt down to brush aside some of the leaves that coated the foundation with his dark eyes never leaving the grave. He made to continue as in to bask in the peace of the area surrounding him.

Of course, he had to keep going, "I…never told Saya what you did even after all these years," He began again with a sigh, "Of what caused the rift between us...of what you did to us... even though it hurt her more than me."

The stone's shine seemed to get stronger as Kai spoke.

"I think...even in the end, I wanted the memory she's had of you to remain untarnished...since she doesn't acknowledge the lie I had helped the committee form six years ago." He continued as he stood back up while pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pockets.

Kai took a moment to light one and place it in his mouth, breathing in deeply for the burning tobacco to reach his lungs. It had been many, many years since he had last smoked but given the stress that life has plagued him as of late, he gave back in to the old habit.

At least until the mission was done. For now, he'd let the smoke take the edge off.

"Saya used to call me a stubborn old fool after we stopped speaking to each other." Kai suddenly continued after another puff or two, replacing the packet and lighter back into his pocket, and taking out a small metal box to contain the crumbling ashes of the cigarette; making sure that none of it would land on the grave or grounds.

"It broke her heart when I had us cut ties with you...She was right of course; I was very stubborn as there were days that I almost caved in. Days that I simply wanted to come into your office unannounced with a bottle of wine and simply forgive and forget. Yet every time I almost did...my mind would just go back to that night when you finally told me the truth." Kai's empty hand clenched into a trembling fist.

"You...knew better than anyone...you knew that I had been jerked around nearly all my life, being everyone's fall man when it was convenient..." He grimaced as he took another drag and let loose another plume of smoke, "I just never expected that you of all people would have done that to me, but worse than that was what you did to my wife."

Kai could feel bitter tears welling up in his eyes. "Damn it boy...I always said to myself that if you could ever came to face me and truly apologize to me and Saya for what you did...I would have accepted it...without hesitation and something tells me in my heart Saya would have too...she has always been that kind. And as much as I wanted to reach out...I just couldn't."

The grave's luster seemed to darken as the shadows of the sakura trees swayed in the wind overhead.

"So, I waited for that day...for when you would finally return and say those words. Words I needed to hear to put the past behind us. Yet as I waited, days became weeks, weeks became months and months became years and when all was said and done," His cigarette nearly drooped out of his mouth, "you died without ever so much as leaving a final word."

Kai pushed the cigarette back.

"Now it seems that life has given me a second chance, another boy," He couldn't stop the small smile from growing, "another boy named Kasei no less...well Saito was his original name, but damn it if I hadn't had my men run through his background with a fine tooth comb, he could have fooled me into believing that he was another son of yours..." Kai looked up to the Sakura trees that had begun to bloom in the sunlight. "He's a lot like you were...more than I care to admit...yet he's also very different...much like your actual son."

He took out and flicked his cigarette when felt the fire reach his lips, "Izuku is doing well, I'm sure you know this already." Kai continued as he placed the smoldering remains of his cigarette into the small metal box so he could dispose of it later, "I still have that badge of his...Grandcross I believe it was called? I bought it for five times the asking price when the lad put it up for auction. Better in my hands than in the hands of one of those crazed fanatics who sought to profit off him by trying to force him to lower the price," He flicked the metal box closed with disgust, "Regardless, that piece will return to its rightful owner in due time...possibly sooner than originally expected."

The marker returned to the more naturally neutral tone of stone.

"I fear that Anno's been more of a bastard than normal...He tried hard to have Izuku take the fall for villains attacking the school only to be hoisted by his own petard with the way on how those laws were written." Kai shook his head. "Villains infiltrating UA? I thought the worst was behind us when All For One finally fell to All Might's fists six years ago."

"I was fine dirtying my own hands...but using children to further his ends? No," He shook his head disgustedly, "I can't and won't force Ryu to continue his task, especially after risking his life like that. But I can't stop him from doing Anno's bidding. I don't have the power to move against him...but I know how to ruin him if he ever goes too far. It was my insurance policy if he ever tried to have me removed from my spot on the commission," He scoffed, "of course, it would take me down with him."

Kai chuckled to himself. "Mutually assured self-destruction...I was fool to have gotten into bed with those blood sucking parasites thinking it was my chance to make some kind of difference for people like me...for the quirkless...but I wasn't foolish enough not to cover my ass."

Kai stopped himself for a moment to shift the flowers on top of the grave back to their original spot as they had begun to slide off from the breeze.

"It works just as well since my own Adjutant is working to take me down with a group of Pros and Kiriyuuin...I should have known that Tanaka would ultimately side against me after I had forced his hand. He's just the type to seek justice after all." He grinned with pride, "that was the reason I had come to rely on him for all these years and made sure he was promoted fairly for it."

Kai breathed in the clean spring air, trying to rid himself of the horrible aftertaste in his mouth from his cigarette. He had known for well over a year now that his most trusted subordinate had turned on him; helping with an investigation started by All Might and his former friend turned rival on the force: Kaoru Kiriyuuin to take him down and expose the truth to the world. He always knew that All Might could have never lived that down for what he had been forced to accept. All Might wouldn't be All Might if he hadn't done so. Yet despite this knowledge Kai never intervened.

Because in the end, he knew that he had been in the wrong from the beginning and had known that one day, sooner or later, the truth would come out whether he confessed or he was dragged into the light.

"At the rate things had been changing it seems only like a matter of time before the truth finally comes out...All I can do now is simply delay it for as long as possible to get some manner of reforms in before it is done."

"Sir?"

Kai straightened up while he turned to the voice behind him.

_'Speak of the devil.'_

Hajime Tanaka was making his way to his superior officer, stopping right next to him with a prompt smart salute. "Sir, we just received a call from the Commissioner General, they want to begin the meeting early to prepare for the Pro-heroes we are expected to receive tomorrow."

Kai hummed in response while slowly nodding his head. "Until next time boy," he said in a whisper to Hisashi's Grave, tipping his combination cap, before turning to speak with his Adjutant. "No rest for old men, eh?" He spoke as he began his march back to the entrance.

"I am afraid not Sir," Hajime answered curtly; eyeing the gravestone for a moment before turning heel to walk next to his boss.

The two began making their way back to their personal guards. Kai began to think hard on what would be next once the operation was finished. Their short walk back was uneventful save for making some room for a few new arrivals who had come to pay their own respects; among them was a familiar looking short boy with purple orb like hair, accompanied by a short older gentleman that looked a lot like him.

"Tanaka." Kai suddenly spoke up silently as they walked past the others.

"Yes Sir?"

"Remind me again…what was the reason you needed to access the archive again?"

"Ah...I recently came upon evidence from a recent case with possible cross-linking evidence with a cold case from over a decade ago." Hajime tried to answer vaguely.

"Hm...is it relevant to any major cases we are dealing with right now?"

"At the moment there is only a possibility of a connection with the USJ Sir. I would have no way of knowing or confirming the relevance unless I got access to the necessary files."

The two men continued walking until they reached the entrance way; Kai placed a hand on his subordinate's shoulder stopping him from going further.

"You've always been one hell of a detective Tanaka and I know you wouldn't ask for something like this unless you really felt that it was important," Kai took his hand off and walked on to the car, "When we get back to the office, I'll handle the meeting with someone else and you," He stopped briefly, "You get to looking at what you need to find."

"Ah…I understand, thank you Sir."

* * *

"While I'm very happy to see that her condition has greatly improved Ms. Midoriya," The doctor set down the report, "However I am hesitant when it comes to her relationship with your son and his umm," he paused as he looked out the window again. "Girlfriend?" The doctor questioned with a slight scratch of his chin as two adults looked through a one-way window to the room next door from his office.

Eri could be seen playing with the two young teens with the white bunny plush she had gotten from her television debut.

"They're friends...but I'm sure that Izuku is smitten with her." Inko corrected with a slightly nervous smile. It was the final screening with Eri's psychiatrist* in order to complete the paperwork to allow Eri to begin schooling and possibly the adoption process. The Doctor leaned in with hands together and a solemn look on his face, thinking hard about his next few words.

"I understand that both your son and his friend are a bit more mature than the average teen after I interviewed each of them, now as Hero Course students that should be expected." He cautiously began. "However I cannot, in my professional opinion, directly encouragethe relationship between the three. I fear that despite their maturity; Eri's imprinting could lead to complications if you end up officially adopting her Ms. Midoriya."

Inko Midoriya felt some pensiveness grow in her chest.

"Even more so if the adoption isn't approved." He added when he took off his glasses; "separating them while she is still imprinted could be very troublesome for her, especially with her prior history."

The doctor paused to take a sip of his coffee before continuing, "Then there is also the possible issue of their relationship," he added motioning his free hand toward the teens. "If they got together or if they had a falling out...that could really affect Eri who needs stability in her life."

Inko nodded heeding his words carefully. "I mean at this rate, I'm more than willing to adopt Eri completely, she's been nothing but a complete sweetheart and a blessing in our home and I'd like to make sure that she continues having a good home. And as for how Izuku and Ochako treat Eri...I mean...I'm not sure how we would even begin to stop Eri."

The Doctor listened carefully before breathing out a light chuckle and gave Inko a warm smile. "Now let's not get too ahead of ourselves."

Inko was surprised by the change in demeanor, but decided to listen before making any comment.

"The good news is that I'm onboard to sign you off as a qualified legal guardian, which in this case is simply a formality to keep on for the record." The Doctor started off as he grabbed a long manila envelope containing the documents Inko needed.

However, the doctor held the envelope over Inko's hand, "Now, here is some food for thought, if you adopted Eri and made some arrangements with the children: it is possible that Eri will slowly and eventually grow out of referring to them as her parents and see them more as siblings and you as her mother."

Inko nodded.

"However let's say for the sake of the argument that despite the arrangements, Eri continues to refer to those two as her parents." He motioned to the boy outside, "You can, in the future, ultimately allow Izuku to be granted legal guardianship of Eri when he reaches the age of the majority and meets the general criteria for adoption."

"I thought you didn't recommend that outlook?" Inko now questioned making sure she wasn't mishearing him.

"From a professional stance, yes and I still standby that since your son and his friend are still minors," the doctor began to explain, "and I cannot in good conscience ask them to undertake such an endeavor with them being so young." Then the doctor let out a light chuckle; "Not to mention they legally wouldn't be able to do so in the first place."

"However this case is...far from average and the variables are equally numerous in possible outcomes. So even if we were to draft up a step-by-step plan for Eri to transition her imprinting, it is completely possible for it not to work...so a back-up plan should be considered and this option can at least give Izuku, at least as an adult, the ability make an informed decision with respect to his age and career path should he decide to agree with adopting her as his own."

Inko looked over to the two teens and the small child between them; Izuku was sitting with Eri huddled up on his lap while Ochako was reading something to them on her phone. Another story perhaps? A small smile grew on her face, no matter what the outcome she knew they would make it work.

And knowing how big Izuku's heart was, Inko knew he wouldn't hesitate to accept Eri as his adopted daughter if it came down to it because, paperwork or not, Izuku was already Eri's father as far as any of them were concerned.

"Very well."

"Excellent," the doctor breathed out looking almost relieved, "Now there just a few quick things we need to go over and we'll be all set." He added as he withdrew the some of the paperwork from the envelope, along with a prescription pad, and held them up.

"The first is a prescription for quirk suppressant medications, one in tablet form and a second in a set of EQ pens _-mostly as a precaution_;" He placatingly held a hand up as he continued, " After reading the reports from a Mr. Shouta Aizawa, and Eri's pediatrician, they both recommended these as a safety measure should Eri's quirk ever go haywire." He said handing Inko the two sheets of papers with the prescription orders.

"Secondly, I looked over the private school you are considering to have Eri attend and checked it over with the list of approved schools for someone of her current deposition and I'm happy to report that it meets the criteria and I will be more than happy to sign-off on it."

Inko sighed with great relief, the school was a lucky break especially since Eri had already made two friends from it. The Doctor however wasn't finished and now looked a little tense.

"Now the third is...a little more sensitive."

Inko felt her breath hitch at the man's change in tone. It wasn't harsh, but he wasn't as warm as he was mere moments ago.

If anything he looked guilty.

"Now, I have known that you are the wife the late Draco Knight and while neither you nor your son are on the volatile list," The doctor paused to ruminate, "With recent events making the news however. I have decided to employ," he held a hand up as Inko made to argue, "_As a general precaution_ to safeguard both of us from any possible legal ramifications, a three-month probationary period." The Doctor stated gently with a simple motion of his hands as he handed her the remaining paperwork.

"Thankfully you do not need to do anything special or extra," he adjusted his glasses with a growing wry grin, "simply keep doing what you have been doing and as long as you and Izuku prove that neither of your quirks pose a threat to Eri or the general public during this time and the probation will end exactly ninety days from today. However," He replaced his glasses, "I did find a clause that a ranking member of the municipal government, such as the Mayor and or Police Chief of Musutafu can override the probation with their personal seal, testifying to your character."

"Oh! I see," Inko said with relief while giving him a slightly wobbly smile, she understood why the doctor needed to do this; covering their bases in the eyes of the law was simply the smart thing for anyone to do. However, it still stung that despite not being on the volatile list, they still had been treated as such.

_'The Mayor is a neocon member...so no luck with getting an override there...and then there is Kai...I still have that letter from Hisashi...maybe?'_

"Please forgive me Ms. Midoriya, this is the shortest probation I can administer under the law which would give us both protection under the law if things ever went," The Doctor coughed awkwardly, "beyond expectations."

"However, I have no doubt that you and your son will pass the ninety-day probationary period and Eri will be all set to begin the adoption process. If all goes well, she should be completely and legally in your care by summer."

Inko accepted the last of the paperwork happy to know that at the very least progress was being made. She knew that Izuku was in control of his quirk. Still she didn't want anyone in the government to keep putting them down after that whole fiasco at the USJ so they would play ball for the time being. Thankfully All Might had been a huge pillar of support for this entire endeavor and reassured her that he would provide any legal help that would be needed, if the government tried anything funny.

* * *

_**Tuesday**_

Ryuko sat happily at her desk with her boyfriend Shinya sitting across setting up their take out lunch. It had been a slow day for them, whether due to the holiday or a desire to lay low after the USJ incident; villain activity had sharply decreased. This allowed the two veteran pros to take an extended lunch period while sending their respective sidekicks out to patrol in their stead like Hisashi would have done years ago under similar circumstances.

Their relationship was still relatively low-key with only their immediate family and close friends knowing. Well, them and their staff who knew to keep it from the press.

Despite the rumors already running among some the seedier gossip columns much to their annoyance.

This only led for the duo to remain professional between themselves during work and keep public displays of affection to a minimum.

Still, it was nice for the two just to spend some nice quiet time alone; eating some hot take out and being able to speak a little more openly.

Ryuko fiddled with her phone; opening a radio app and plugging it into a portable speaker so the two can listen to the news which was one of the many methods pro-heroes use to keep an ear out for possible emergencies that could use their assistance.

"_And now for today's daily report."_

The two worked in silence as it always took the ninja themed hero a while to get into a talkative mood. When the two got their individual meals, they proceed to do the traditional prayer before eating.

"Thanks for the food." The two said unison before digging into their delicious meal while paying careful attention to both the radio and their phones in case something urgent came up. Experience had taught the veteran pros that emergency calls could happen at any moment and that it was best to save the chatter for after they were done eating, lest they end up only eating part of their meal before answering a call.

Still despite the only sounds being the radio, the general sounds leaking from the outside and the sounds of their chewing, the two pros enjoyed the comfortable peace, with a few meaningful glances thrown at one another, afforded to them until.

"_This marks at least the fifth time the winged individual has been seen flying across Shizuoka, Yamanashi and Saitama Prefectures at the dead of night," _the anchor's voice announced from the radio. Ryuko's eyes narrowed as she ate.

Another sighting of the mysterious "batman" who had been seen in the night skies flying for almost a week and a half. There have been a number of attempts to capture him or her, and the reports afterwards have all but confirmed that this was not a pro-hero or a civilian contractor with authorization to use their quirk.

The fact that the individual in question has only been flying around and hasn't hurt anyone or even caused any direct trouble has gotten most people, including some in the police, to believe that it is just some kind of prankster or daredevil who just happens to like antagonizing the government and heroes.

Yet something in Ryuko's gut told her otherwise.

Now, given how she flew in her dragon form, the flight patterns from the "batman" reports she'd gotten from the police told her that the individual was practicing their means of flight rather than actively flying for the sake of it.

Although a practice for what remained a mystery.

"That was delicious," Shinya said bringing Ryuko out of her thoughts as he wiped his mouth with a napkin and replaced his face mask.

Ryuko smiled as she chirped. "Yep," Then the two proceed to begin cleaning up the remains of their lunch. When the desk was cleared the two settled in for a more casual conversation,mostly about the upcoming Sports Festival.

"I'm glad to see Izuku's development returning in stride, especially after being unable to use his powers for the last few years," Shinya commented as he remembered the son of his best friend last Sunday, shaking his guilt riddled head in shame, "I still regret not being able to do much for them in all these years."

"Shinya, Inko forgave you, and it's not like you've done anything..." Ryuko reassured the ninja themed hero placing her hand on his.

"At the very least we have made progress in Hisashi's case and now with the festival looming." He closed his eyes with a tired sighe though there was a small upward curve to his mouth, "I'm very interested to see Izuku in action, given how extensive I trained with Hisashi." He opened en eye to glance back at Ryuko, "I'm curious to see his skill level with Dragon Shift."

"Oho...thinking about stealing Izu away from lil' old me?" Ryuko joked with a glare that was betrayed by her smile hoping to shift the downward mood. "By taking him as an intern?"

"I doubt Izuku would seek to intern with you given how much to you seem to enjoy teasing him," Shinya deadpanned. "Especially about that that Uraraka girl."

"You mean my new favorite ship?"

Shinya groaned as Ryuko laughed.

"You can't deny the chemistry between the two, especially when it came to Eri when we visited Hisashi."

"They are certainly comfortable with each other...and if they work well together in the field then they could make quite the formidable duo." Shinya commented, there was a bit of an interest in seeing Ochako in action since Ryuko had informed him of her third-place spot at the entrance exam.

"I'm just happy that Izu's grown to be so much more confident this past year," Ryuko added as she paused the radio app so she could look at her new favorite picture she had taken on the day they went to go visit the cemetery. It was of her favorite trio of cinnamon rolls sleeping together. Izuku was sleeping on his left side against the wall with Ochako sleeping on her right and sandwiched between them was Eri with the biggest smile on her face.

"Then again, I'm pretty sure they want to feel like they've earned their spots, rather than being offered spots due to a false sense of nepotism," Ryuko said with a sigh, knowing that even if Shinya hadn't mentioned the offer.

Izuku would most likely never accept an offer from her, not unless he needed to, "I remember some of the looks I got from my classmates when I took both the internship and the work study under Hisashi."

"He did make you work for it," Shinya interjected now returning the favor. "I am interested in taking Izuku under my agency, though mind you I'm already dealing with Gang Orca who said he's already called dibs," he shook his head amused. "So I may have to take up Hisashi's old score and fight him for giving Izuku an offer."

"I mean Izuku could still choose..."

"This is Gang Orca we are talking about...you know that he won't hesitate to march into that school and drag Izuku out to take him."

"…Fair enough," Ryuko answered with a laugh as she replaced the portable speaker into her phone and brought up the radio app once again. Only for their conversation was cut short as a new development seemed to arise when Ryuko had taken her phone out.

"_-update regarding the newest victim of the Hero-Killer Stain: Hideki Matsumoto better known as the Pro-hero Atlas has been found dead while en route to assist with a traffic accident; police have confirmed that Stain has left another of his new calling cards, but have not revealed what was written on the card."_

The eyes of both veteran pro-heroes grew wide as they heard the name of the latest victim.

"Shinya...wasn't Atlas..."

Shinya however raised his hand to silence her as the report continued.

"_Atlas had been active pro-hero with over thirty-eight years of active service which include notable work in several incidents, which included the Draco Knight incident six years ag-"_

"Its happened again...we've lost another key witness to Stain...once with Leaper was bad luck, twice when Marx was killed was a coincidence, but thrice with Altas? No, we need to alert the others and see about getting the remaining pro-hero witnesses security that wouldn't raise suspicions," He pulled up his phone, "Ryuko call Ingenium, I'll be calling Nighteye."

Ryuko nodded as she began dialing Tensei Iida, while Shinya dialed down Sir Nighteye's number..

Atlas had been one of seven witnesses whose testimony was planned to be used for when they were ready to expose the truth to the world.

Shinya prayed as the phone rang, one could never be too sure if this was just a coincidence and he will be damned if he allowed a mere oversight to stop them from clearing Hisashi's good name.

* * *

Sekijirou and Nemuri walked alongside Shouta and Alex, the last person was planning on making his way back to the training fields to meet up with Hitoshi and Reiko. They had all just gotten out of an impromptu staff meeting to go over what Alex had discovered about the planned protests of the Sport's Festival by some of the General Studies students.

"I'm glad that Principal Nezu already has a plan on how to counter this little insurrection," Nemuri confessed while shaking her head; "never in a million years did I think something like this would happen."

"If I could be honest Ms. Kayama," Alex interjected with a slightly concerned expression on his face, "I kind of get it...not the using Midoriya as an excuse mind!" He quickly clarified upon seeing the sour expression that suddenly grew on Nemuri's face before continuing. "What I mean is that I always found it to be a little cruel to force the Gen Ed students to participate in an event that is really only meant to highlight the Hero Course, with only the occasional non-hero student making it to the second round...let alone the third."

Alex knew from first-hand experience how often his old classmates from General Studies would resent about being forced to participate in the festival every year. The exceptions of course being those who were liaisons or wanted to become liaisons, those who dreamed of using the festival to get promoted up the ladder like he had done himself.

"That's how it's always been Springfield," Sekijirou retorted with a slight growl; "it's practically tradition!"

"But UA isn't tied to tradition, and this little rebellion should serve as a wake-up call for us." Shouta responded coolly, "we've all known since our time in school that there's been some animosity between the courses, particularly with the Hero course."

"It's especially sad for any quirkless students who's had dreams of being a hero until they're forced to participate in the Sports Festival," Alex added with a grimace, he knows a few quirkless students in his year group and their personal feelings about the festival, "They often feel like outcasts already and it's like this festival is taunting them about something they know they could never have."

The group stopped when they reached the teacher's lounge, they would split off from here once their conversation was done.

Nemuri seemed conflicted as she could see where Alex was coming from, especially since they were all previous UA Alumni however she knew that things had changed with the times and tensions were still high from last month.

"Can we all agree that it is better to nip this in the bud before it goes public yes?" Sekijirou spoke up as he opened the door. "I'll keep an eye on Mizuoji in the meantime to make sure that we can settle this before the next joint training session after the holidays."

"Oh! Thank you for reminding me Kan," Nemuri said almost slapping the top of her head. "Springfield, I know that you've been busy with your trainees, but could we ask for your help regarding the next joint practice? We're going over costumes and support gear, and given how your old costume was designed, I think it would be great to have you as a demonstrator."

Alex smiled, but seemed a little hesitant. "Normally I'd be completely on board, but between training, planning, preparing for my move, on top of me having to study I might be stretched a little thin."

Nemuri's expression changed into one of confusion.

"On the day of the joint training, I could take over the day's training with Shinsou and Yanagi to give you some more study time Springfield." Shouta interjected with a sideways glance.

"Oh! If you're sure about that Mr. Aizawa...then yeah! I could do that!" Alex answered cheerfully, "but if I could also have a copy the footage for that day's training? It would be great study material for my trainees and get them to think about the kind of support gear they might need for the festival."

"Sounds good to me," Sekijirou retorted with folded arms being extra careful with prosthetic arm. "It would be good to have another set of hands to help supervise the two classes in the middle of training."

"Sweet," Alex said gratefully before giving his former teachers a bow, "now if you can please excuse me, I'm heading back down to check-up on my trainees."

"I'll be down in a minute Springfield, I just need to go over some paperwork regarding our probationary students. Just have do some warm-ups before we head back to Site Omega." Shouta added as the American turned around.

Alex immediately turned right back around and made sure to answer respectfully. "Understood Mr. Aizawa."

"How is he doing Shouta?" Nemuri whispered to Shouta, as Alex made his way back to the field. The bandaged man nodded in return as they entered the lounge and to sit at their individual desks.

"He still has a lot to learn as a mentor," Shouta spoke up as he gathered the documentation to release: Katsuki Bakugou, Fumikage Tokoyami and Jurota Shishida from their month long probation upon returning from the holiday.

"But he's managed to get both of the trainees to open up to him and that should make their transitions to your classes easier, should there ever be openings."

Togaru Kamakiri's probation was to be extended due to his belligerent actions after the USJ.

"Aside from some possible issues with the Midoriya boy and students in my class, I don't see anyone leaving either of our homerooms anytime soon." Sekijirou added from his desk looking over a copy of Alex's report that had been left on his desk. "That reminds me, Eraser, is there a reason why Mikami the class B business liaison is training with the general studies liaisons?"

Shouta however remained silent as he checked his emails. Nezu had confided in him about the three students who without going into detail, needed to have an additional watch placed on them for the time being. Shino Mizuoji was among them and this was before they learned about his involvement with the General Studies shake up.

"Springfield found Mikami breaking some rules, and administered a corrective punishment that I backed him up on." Shouta said almost offhandedly, making both homeroom teachers have a quiet chuckle to themselves.

"Hey Shouta?" Nemuri called out from her desk as she looked over her own copy of the report.

"Hmm?"

"I thought Springfield already got one of the recommended spots for The Rhode Island Institute of Heroics? Why does he need to study?"

"Oh, that," Shouta answered with a rare chuckle to himself, "Springfield got a new offer last Saturday that I've already informed him on, but unlike the R.I.I.H. This one requires him to take a rather grueling entrance exam according to the email."

"That's surprising next to UA, R.I.I.H is supposed to be the next big league school in the world. Why would he want to go somewhere else?" Nemuri questioned now really confused.

"I'll send you a copy of the email that contained the new offer...Once you see where it came from you might see why Springfield is considering joining it. If he passes the exam, he'll just have more choices to choose from." Shouta answered as a few clicks could be heard from his little cubicle in the corner. A few moments later Nemuri received a new email in her computer inbox.

"Let's see..." Nemuri said to herself as she opened the email; eyes growing wide when she saw the origin. "Oh wow...that is one hell of an opportunity."

* * *

Once again Tensei Iida sat in his office waiting for another call from Hajime. He sat comfortably at his desk with a player's handbook and one of the expansion books to see what kind of character he would consider playing for his next session of Dungeons and Dragons with his family that was planned later this week. His High-Elf Paladin had suffered a rather unfortunate demise and at the hands of his wife's wizard ironically and on top of that his party didn't have the means to revive him yet. So, a new character was needed to fill the gap until either his original was revived or the character completely replaced him.

He had decided earlier to have Golden Week off, with the open excuse of wanting to spend more time with his family, which was true, but the primary reason for this extended time off was to continue being the middle man in the investigation.

But, since he's been serving as the go-between for all the key players in their team, Tensei had been quite busy since their last breakthrough. The idea that Stain was hunting down their witnesses was very disturbing and had gotten the team to begin coordinating with every agency that was part of the investigation to do more joint patrols with the remaining witnesses under the guise of building on team-ups to the press.

Then his phone began to ring with a familiar name on the screen, making Tensei put down his book and turn on the recording equipment for the call.

"Go ahead Tanaka," Tensei answered as he pulled up his files.

"_Afternoon sir," _Hajime answered with a deep yawn, making Tensei flinch knowing that same sense of exhaustion that comes with overworking and Hajime was much older than him. Still Tensei didn't want to seem rude to arguably his most important contact next to his spy in the Underworld.

"And to you as well Tanaka, I hope everything is fine," Tensei retorted as he flipped through his last call with the detective.

"_As long as I have my best friend Caffeine on hand, I'll be fine," _Hajime responded with a rare chuckle. _"But let's not get lost in the pleasantries Sir. I do have an update...along with a couple questions that have arisen from my latest dig into the archives."_

"So you got permission?" Tensei asked surprised. "I thought Doumeki would have been more strict about letting you in."

_"I won't lie, I thought the same thing yet the Chief did not need that much convincing. All he asked was if it was important for the case and…he let me go...he even gave me more free time to investigate." _

Tensei rubbed the top of his brow. _'Kai Doumeki is one hell of an enigma.'_

"_Still I do have an update...which honestly has left me with more questions than answers Sir."_

"What do you mean? I thought you were just confirming details about the Nursery Incident from twelve years ago?"

_"That was the plan, I even called in a favor from a lab technician I knew for an early sample of the new blood test from that Noumu creature that is in our captivity...and that's where things get...odd." _

Tensei leaned forward on his desk ready to jolt down notes, "What do you mean?"

_"The DNA results did match the victims of some of the children taken from the nursery incident and were never recovered...however there were other sets of DNA found that didn't match the victims of the Nurse Incident or small time villains...the strange part about this DNA is that it came from an incident that went back even further...and do you want take a wild guess who was involved in this incident?"_

Tensei froze upon realizing the implication. "Draco Knight...and Kai Doumeki."

"_Correct, there was a bombing in Hosu city at a fertility clinic on June of 212 Q.E. I couldn't find much since the case went cold and all I found was Draco Knight's third year provisional license with the name Hisashi Kasei listed and the back then Sergeant Kai Doumeki as the duty officer who signed off on his quirk usage...sound familiar?"_

Tensei simply blinked in confusion. _'How much further down the rabbit hole are we expected to go?'_

"Wait...Draco Knight's last name was Midoriya right?"

"_Not until he was married in 218 Q.E. Before that he was known as Hisashi Kasei."_

Tensei began flipping through his logs until he found the name he was looking for: Ryu Kasei; along with a picture he had and the report that Hajime had already provided about his background.

_**Ryu Saito**__**: **_

_**-Born in May of 219 Q.E.**_

_**-Too young to be involved in the Nursery Incident as he would have been two years old at the time.**_

_**-Despite the similar looks to Hisashi, there are clear differences and evidence from the private investigation to confirm that he was the bastard son of dead Representative Takumi Saito and an unknown woman that was suspected to have been a prostitute, who the representative had paid off to keep silent.**_

_'Little good that did him when he was indicted for corruption, bribery and abuse of office.' _Thought Tensei derisively as he looked over the recent suspicion that Sir Nighteye's team had raised about Ryu and a possible link to an orphanage that Hideyoshi Anno had visited and donated money towards.

_'If anything, the selection of the Kasei name seems almost deliberate as if to throw us off,' _his pen hovered over the notepad,_ 'or was it to throw Doumeki off?'_ Tensei wondered as Hajime continued to speak.

"_When I discovered this, I immediately went to look up the Kasei name, and found myself unable to find anything...or more accurately what I found is under a very tight lock and key with clearance needed from above."_

"I thought the clearance you were granted would have covered that?"

_"Had permission to go through our archives here in Musutafu, but looking up family registries is a whole another matter thanks to certain privacy laws that were passed a few years back, but given that it needs clearance from above rather than the normal judiciary procedure means someone is actively hiding something. Though I am not sure what exactly."_

"Is there any other way to get access without permission?"

_"And that's where you come in Sir, I believe Ryukyu might be of some assistance here, last I checked she was related to Draco Knight correct? She might be able to shed some light about Draco Knight's past. Of course, I could ask for permission but at that point everyone will know that I'm looking into Draco Knight and not just the USJ."_

"Meaning your cover could be blown...damn it." Tensei said under his breath.

"_Regardless sir, I'm not completely out of work just yet. I still have the ability to go to Hosu myself and do a little bit of manual digging into their archives for more details about the bomb incident which includes speaking to some old timer veterans I know from that time who are still on the force."_

"Please be careful Tanaka, you sound pretty overworked," Tensei responded with concern clear in his voice. "Maybe it might be better to place a brief hold on that trip until after your mission is complete."

_"I'm fine but thank you for your concern. I will be heading to Hosu tomorrow as it is my day off, I don't mind spending most of it to investigate this new issue and just getting some decent sleep for the remainder. I believe your also expecting a report from your Underworld contact yes?"_

"Yes, I'm expecting a call tomorrow with the dead drop phone we provided, likewise we got his report that my father-in-law is currently looking over, but once I've got that, I'll let you know more."

"_Right..." _Hajime answered, _"anything new I find in Hosu will be reported to you after the transportation job Saturday ...I won't lie to you sir...I'll be glad when that headache is over with._

"Understood, thank you and good luck Tanaka."

"_Same to you Sir."_

With that Tensei hung up the phone, sighing deeply as he turned to look at his new incomplete character sheet, mixed along with his many, many files that covered his desk each one from a different team.

The Red file was the one covering Sir Nighteye's team, currently looking over The Neocons, HPSC, and HUC

The Blue file was everything compiled by him and Hajime investigating Kai Doumeki, the League of Villains, and the Nursery Incident.

The Green file was strictly for the information that the Pro-heroes involved in the investigation had gathered about the Cardinal Kings, and the Eight Precepts of Death.

Then there was the Black file: a compilation of files between himself, his father-in-law, Hawks and their man on the inside. Awaiting its next update from the newest intelligence they had received from said spy.

The Yellow file was the most recent edition to the group; investigating the three students who were the suspected targets of the golden-eyed bounty of the USJ.

He had already gotten everything he could on Ryu Kasei which, if Nighteye's team can update upon, confirm a new development tying the boy with the Neocons. Yet the link has still not been made.

Denki Kaminari's case had shot-up with renewed interest once his father Yuji Kaminari was confirmed to have had ties with the Cardinal Kings, specifically the Southern Gang which looped back around to the Nursery Incident and who was still at large.

Now Shino Mizuoji's family had ties to Neocon members, with his father working as a top level executive for the Detnerat Company that was headquartered in Deika City and was an active supporter of the Neocon movement following the death of his elder son Jonouchi during the Draco Knight incident. Detnerat having had issues with suspected black market dealings for their products.

_'All of them could still be fair game for villains. The adopted son of one Japan's top cops and the bastard son of one the most unpopular politicians of recent memory. However the Son of a well known villain who ratted on his friends and made his escape leaving his wife to be jailed for harboring him could be grounds to get his son hunted. Or could it be the son of a well known executive out of revenge for shoddy products? Villains have killed for less, and a organized villain group would need as much gear as possible...like this League of Villains.'_

Tensei leaned forward to being tidying up his desk, he did he looked behind me looking out the window, seeing Tenya and Hikari both doing their daily runs: Tenya did for practice and exercise, while Hikari just liked to run and encourage her Uncle. Tensei smiled, feeling the urge to join them.

_'Hopefully this will all payoff soon.'_

* * *

_**Wednesday**_

Inko and Ochako settled on the couch wiping their brows with a cool rag, they had finished cleaning up the small mess they made in the kitchen, while Eri was taking a nap in Izuku's bedroom.

"Thank you for the help Ochako," Inko sighed gratefully as she leaned back; the cake they were making was currently in the oven baking to perfection. The next step; making the icing for the cake would start shortly but given that the birthday boy wouldn't be back with Izuku for at least a couple of hours. The two women had more than enough time to rest up a bit before starting their prep. Besides Katsuki preferred simpler, lighter cakes, rather than anything too sweet and heavy.

"No problem Inko," Ochako answered. "I'm happy to help out plus I didn't really know what to give Bakugou for a birthday present so it was the least I can do."

"Well I'm glad you two are getting along, I was a little worried about Katsuki's tendencies, but I know he means well, I was just worried he would take Hisashi's word too far." Inko replied with a smile.

"Don't get me wrong, Bakugou and I didn't get along right-away, but Izuku stepped in here and there when he felt it get a bit too heated, but ever since I visited him in your house with my medal," Ochako grinned, "I think he's finally warmed up to me."

"Oh that boy," Inko chuckled. "Headstrong and smart but with a tendency to jump the gun. But I'm glad you're getting along better," she turned to the teen, "I was honestly worried it would have been like Mitsuki and Hisashi all over again."

Ochako leaned in curious; having her own experiences with the Bakugou Matriarch, she was surprised to hear of a similar tale of her favorite childhood hero. "Really? Mrs. Bakugou and Hisashi didn't get along?"

Inko laughed as she began recollecting shaking her head before she began. "At first no..." Inko paused to think for a moment, "Mitsuki is about a year and half older than me, so she was always a bit like an older sister to me. "

"Did she go to UA like you?"

"No, she went to another school, she was originally trying to be a nurse before deciding to go into fashion so she went to a more STEM based high school that would have been better fit for her at the time."

Ochako resisted the urge burst into a fit of laughter as she pictured the occasionally ill-tempered woman dressed in scrubs berating a patient. _'Guess the medical field got a lucky break.' _

"Anyway...I remember telling Mitsuki about my time as school...and brought up Hisashi on occasion." Inko actually turned a little red as the nostalgia of her high school returned to her. "It took a few years, but in the end they got along, though I might have intervened here and there to make that finally happen."

Ochako giggled, sounded familiar but there was a small niggling question so she sat up, "Hey Inko?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you fall in love with Hisashi at first sight?"

Inko burst into a sudden fit of laughter, "Haha, No! Oh sweetie...if you only knew! Hahaha!"

Ochako was left almost dumbfounded by Inko's laughter.

After a moment or two Inko wiped away of a few stray tears from her eyes. "Hisashi...well I'm not going to lie to you. Hisashi honestly scared me at first, and Mitsuki was always a bit wary of him because of it."

Of all responses she expected to hear, this was far beyond what she had anticipated.

"Hisashi was...scary?"

Inko nodded, "I mean, when you're a liaison at UA, be it from General Studies, Support Course; or the Business Course like I was," she pointed a hand to herself, "You tend share a very unique bond with the classroom you're assigned too, especially since the Liaisons tended to have their own special meetings where we discuss things like rankings, items and how to in theory we would market them." She had a nostalgic grin, "it was all a bit intimidating, especially in hindsight since Hisashi's class would include people who are currently part of the top ten: Gang Orca, Edgeshot, and Best Jeanist."

"Whoa!"

"Yep, now Hisashi..." Her grin lowered a bit, "Well Hisashi had a bit of a reputation thanks to some of the General Education students that came from the same middle school as him. They called him: **The Black Devil**," her grin was gone now, "And given that Hisashi almost always carried the meanest expression around it wasn't hard to believe them. Also didn't help that he and Gang Orca really didn't get along too, well _Sakamta used to be a real stickler for the rules and Hisashi hated it._"

Ochako couldn't believe what she was hearing what with all the interviews she had seen of him. He never seemed like the type of person Inko was talking about now.

"What changed?"

Inko paused for a moment before getting up. "Hold on just a second." She walked away first going to the kitchen to check on the cake then made her way to her bedroom. A couple minutes of rummaging later, Inko returned with another photo album in hands.

"I found this when I was doing some of spring cleaning with Eri," said Inko as she sat back down and opened up the new album for Ochako to see. Ochako's eyes grew wide, their UA pictures!

"This was Hisashi's first year student portrait photo, now compare it to his second and third year ones."

Ochako didn't really know how to respond to the first photo, after seeing so many photos of Hisashi happy, smiling, and laughing throughout the house. Seeing the first year UA student Hisashi Kasei glaring like he was going to punch the cameraman if he stood there any longer was clear and Ochako again was reminded of Ryu Kasei, only without the freckles. And without the angry expression.

The second photo was better, Hisashi wasn't smiling, but his face didn't look angry, it was more neutral and calm. The third one was more in line to what Ochako was used to, warm eyes, and a bright wide smile. It was almost mind blowing of what a little under three years could do to someone.

"I've mentioned him before, but Hisashi had one friend during the first couple of months at school, who also came from the same middle school. Daigo Urashima." She continued flipping the page and showing a photo of Hisashi in his P.E. Uniform with folded arms, standing next to a much young Daigo Urashima _-who was already showing signs of premature balding._

"The guy who works at I-Island?" Ochako questioned as she remembered him from the first photo album.

Inko nodded. "He was a Business Course Liaison and its how we first met; during our first meeting. And what surprised me though was, despite hearing all of the rumors surrounding Hisashi, it was Urashima who always stood up for him and hanged out with him, so it seemed almost completely at odds to what I expected."

_'It sounds a bit like what of people think of Izuku now...'_ Ochako thought sadly as she remembered the people back on the tram when she went to go visit Izuku after the USJ.

"To answer your question, did I fall in love with Hisashi at first sight? No, and I've never really believed in that, I think genuine relationships take time and trust to build up love but I learned not to judge a book by its cover and that there was more to Hisashi that meets the eye."Inko sighed, "the reality though? It wasn't that Hisashi changed, it was that Hisashi learned to finally be himself."

Ochako tilted her head with a raised eyebrow, Inko smiled.

"What I learned, was that Hisashi was never a bully, in fact it was the other way around. Many people bullied him, but never expected him to fight back. I imagine anyone would stop, once they had a hard Jet-Black Scaled fist rammed into their stomachs. Hisashi's face by extension, was basically a defensive mechanism...basically a sign that said** 'Don't mess with me.'** So unless you went out of your way to anger him..._-like Sakamata_...Hisashi was actually very polite and easy to talk with, he just didn't know how to really lower down his defenses until he learned to open up."

Ochako leaned in intently.

"Hisashi used to see a bit of himself in Katsuki as he grew up. While I think Hisashi may have over-exaggerated that claim, he still intervened and helped Katsuki quell some of the behaviors that he knew would have been problematic in the long run which included a really nasty arrogant streak Katsuki used to have, but personally training him helped. "

There was a lot for Ochako to process, it was strange to learn so much about her long time hero from perhaps the best source available. Hell she just found herself jealous of the Ash-Blond birthday boy, getting to be trained by Draco Knight himself when he was younger. But one thing seemed to stand out of all of it.

"So Hisashi was trying to learn to be happy huh?" Ochako asked with the reality hitting her. Inko nodded again.

"If there was one word I would have used to describe Hisashi, it would have been **loneliness**. Hisashi was almost always incredibly lonely. His parents weren't around...and I know for a fact that Ryuko's mother, hated him would often make his time at their house miserable. It was something Ryuko regretted letting happen to him, but she was pretty young when Hiashi first moved in with them so there wasn't much she could do at the time."

_'That also sounds like Izuku...even with Bakugou, Izuku always seemed a bit distant until recently.' _ Ochako thought as she could feel Inko's mood turn, she didn't mean to pry so much of what must have been a really hard topic to talk about. It was hard to control yourself when want to learn more about someone you looked up for most of your life. Ochako decided to shift the subject to something that Inko may find just a little more inviting.

"Inko...when did you know that you...liked Hisashi?"

For a moment Ochako thought she had messed up as Inko still seemed sad, but after a moment a warm smile began growing on her face that was a followed by a schoolgirl blush.

"It's hard to say what was the exact moment, when I finally fell for him. But I do remember the moment I knew I had some feelings for him."

"What was it?"

"So...oh my god...I'm sorry," Inko struggled a bit between embarrassment and some laughter. "So...during our first year I remembered a rescue training accident where Hisashi got hurt, it wasn't too bad. But the training called that they do basic first-aid to themselves before seeking the nurse. I was pretending to be a hurt civilian and gave Hisashi a green scarf that I wore around my neck for while _-It was the fashion trend during that time._" Inko added before flipping the album page flipping of a photo of Hisashi in his P.E. Uniform wearing a sliver medal around his neck and something green on his right wrist. "It wasn't anything special, I just helped him tie it to his arm, and told him he could keep it."

Ochako looked confused, as it didn't answer her question, but Inko wasn't finished.

"Sooo...It didn't really cross my mind again, until our second year Sports Festival and by that point Hisashi and I had grown rather close, and had been sporting the Hero name, I helped him with...Draco Knight." Inko shook her still red with embarrassment. "So just before the opening ceremonies, I was standing to wish everyone luck, when Hisashi came to me, wearing my old scarf on his wrist. That same scarf that I had completely forgotten about, and he decided to keep it...and called it..._My lady's favor._"

Ochako unexpectedly squealed with a mixture of awe and second hand embarrassment. _'Oh my god, that is sooo cute and yet so nerdy!'_

"I had already liked him by that time, but after that, I knew he was something special. It never sounded like a cheesy pick-up line or simple flirt. With Hisashi it was completely genuine and right after the festival he asked me out and the rest was history."

* * *

"Everything go through alright?" He whispered to his phone as he sat on a bench within the grounds of his apartment.

"_The drop off went smoothly. Father and I are still looking through what you discovered so far."_

"Good...what about the samples?"

"_Father is using some of his connections with Kiriyuuin's department to run an independent series of tests but it might take a while since he is backed-up at the moment, the testimony you got from her however; speaks volumes of her past...not to mention that if this is accurate, then this may link us to another case we have uncovered recently."_

"Good, it was a pain in the ass to get both from her, the samples especially being a real doozy." He added with a soft chuckle as he ran his hand down his arm that featured a couple new scars upon his burned flesh.

"_Any luck meeting with the leader of the league again?" _

"No, but I've mostly been meeting up with the one known as Kurogiri since he tends to transport Himiko to and from my hideaway and there have been times when she has been gone for several days." He paused to yawn for a moment before adding, "but every now and then, I get sent to help out with some trouble. I've mostly ended up fighting some punkass yakuza who were stirring trouble for the league."

"_That mirrors the reports from fellow heroes and the police about the power vacuum, but it is interesting to know that even the underworld seems to be struggling with the same issue."_

"From what I gather the league doesn't want these underworld fights to leak into the public, otherwise it would force the government to crackdown harder while they're still recovering from their loss at UA hence why the media hasn't picked up on it."

"_Fair enough...What about Stain? You make any contact with him?"_

"Nothing on that front." He answered while shaking his head. "It seems the boss likes keeping us apart," reflexively he tapped his phone, "but Himiko did confirm that she had met him before while doing work for the league."

"_That also lines up with another suspicion we had. I've got another question for you."_

"Shoot."

"_Since you've been dealing with Yakuza can you tell me anything regarding them? Particularly if you have any information on the phoenix or dragon boys."_

"I think my dad would know more about them that me, why don't you ask him?"

"_I did, but all he managed to fill me in on what he knew from their heyday, we more information about them in the now."_

He hummed as he took a moment to gather his thoughts about his recent encounters with the yakuza he's dealt with as of late.

"From what I gathered there are a bunch of small time yakuza clans that owe up to bigger clans that collectively control a particular amount of territory throughout the country; the biggest of these clans are each lead by a big boss known as a **Cardinal King**. And lately they've been like sharks in a feeding frenzy almost picking fights with the remaining small pockets of Overhaul's gang and each other for said territory."

"_The Cardinal Kings are named after the four Divine Beasts that align to their specific cardinal direction on a compass right?"_

"Yep, apparently yakuza are all about that crazy kind of symbolism**, like _**The Eight Precepts of Death,**_" he scoffed, "But there is an interesting deviation; the south has a few odd things about it."

_"I'm going to take a couple of guesses and say; O__**ne:**__**The Southern beast is a Phoenix and not The Vermilion Bird Suzaku the traditional Southern Beast.**__ T__**wo:**__**The south was once named and led by the Vermilion Bird King until about thirty odd years ago, when the gang and boss changed suddenly changed their name to Phoenix,**__ and T__**hree:**__**There currently isn't an active Phoenix King."**_

"Damn, are you sure that you even need me to check these guys out?" He dryly drawled with a wry grin.

"_It was the only thing that kept coming up that stood out to me. Every time I've asked older pro-heroes who were involved with Yakuza in the past: Endeavor, Gran Torino, All Might and even Gang Orca have some interesting information from his latest busts." _

"Nothing ever really gets by you huh?"

"_**It pays to re-read everything from time to time,**__helps you to __make sure you didn't miss the smaller details that you might have missed the first time around."_

He leaned back in his seat, "Well I do have a little more info, the southern gang doesn't have any actual fighters in their crew as most of the Made Guys*** in the outfit are either really old or are the younger sons of those old guys who are barely around high school age. Not to mention that very few of them actually have combative quirks although they do seem to have a lot of women under their employ...if you catch my drift." He paused before remembering something else he had seen two days ago, "Actually, there was something strange that happened on Monday."

"_Oh?"_

"Some of the younger Phoenix and Dragon boys looked really excited when I was doing guard duty for some kind of meeting."

"_Any details?"_

"It had to be something big, apparently the Dragon King of the East and the acting boss of the South were there, but nothing else from that."

"_I-"_ At that moment a noise in the background that sounded like an elephant blowing from its trunk interrupted the call, that was followed by a familiar high-pitched voice squeaking excitedly.

"_Daddy look!"_

_"The Elephants are about to start their routine Tensei! Come on!"_

_"Ah-I'm coming just one second!"_

A smile grew on his face; despite his heart feeling heavy with longing for what he missed the most.

"You ass, you called me instead of spending time with them at the Zoo?" He added knowing about one of the most popular attractions of the Tokyo Zoo.

"_It's kind of hard to balance family life with all this work on my plate."_

He shook his head, partly to force a few tears that threatened to fall down his eyes back down.

"Well, make more time for them. Please don't end up like me and regret the little time I had really spent with them by the time my life was flipped upside-down."

_"Touy-"_

"That's not my name right now," he interrupted. "I'll fill you in on the bigger details later." He tried to finished up before adding. "And tell them all that I…miss them."

There was a brief pause until the phone answered with.

"_I will."_

With that the call ended and he raised his hand and destroyed the phone with a small burst of blue flame. Dabi rose up from the bench while taking in deep breaths of the spring air as he straightened up his trademark black coat.

"I should check-up on her." He said to himself as he made his way back to the inside of his apartment. When he entered, he found Himiko curled up on her favorite spot on the couch with a tablet watching some kind of live stream.

"I'm back," He announced as he closed the door and moved closer to see what she was watching. She turned to acknowledge him with a small wave and a smile before turning back to watch the stream.

"What ya watchin'?" Dabi asked as he looked over Himiko's shoulder while she moved the tablet aside to allow him a better view.

On the screen was a tall beautiful blonde girl with amber honey eyes and noticeably full lips. Himiko quickly typed up an answer on the digital notepad app she had up.

**-She's the Vlogger named Camie, she's really funny to watch.- **

"_So I was like, on my way to meet up with my gals from school, when I totes spied that blond bomb hottie from school! Ya know the one fam, the one I mentioned before, and like, I totally wanted to like, wanna, catch up with him!" _Camie explained with the camera facing her while brushing aside loose hairs from her face.

Behind her was a series of tables with several people eating curry at a rapid pace, with others on the sidelines either observing or cheering their favorite to win. Camie quickly moved the camera to begin focusing on one particular participant.

"_**YOU CALL THIS SPICY!? MAGMA CURRY MY ASS! I CALL IT WEAK SAUCE! NOW HAND ME ANOTHER!" **_The tall ash blond boy with sharp features roared out as he finished up his plate and held it up to be traded for a fresh plate by one of the organizers who simply stared at him in disbelief. All while making Camie who was now behind the camera began to laugh.

"_But ya can, see he's like totally a bit busy, but I did say he's totes the kind of snacc who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk too ya know?" _

"_**AND ITS LEADING BY THREE PLATES AS THE REST OF THE COMPETITION STARTS TO DROP LIKE FILES!**_**"**

"_Someone just take me out back and shoot me!" _One of the eaters cried as he thudded his head down on the table in defeat.

"_Too…damn…hot..." _Wheezed the spiky redheaded boy sitting next to the ash blond boy, struggling to finish his second plate with a face as red as his fair and clearly full of regret.

Dabi could see that despite Himiko being physically unable to voice out much, was still clearly able to laugh hard even it if it was silently as her whole body seemed to shake and tears of mirth ran down her joyful face.

The camera panned a bit looking over some of the observers in the audience which included, to his surprise, three very familiar faces. A tall boy with dark blue hair and glasses, another boy with dual colored hair and mis-matched eyes, and a girl with bright pink hair and cross-hair eyes.

Another smile crept up his face as the bluenette and pinkette seemed to be having a conversation that wasn't being picked up by the camera, but Dabi had a very good idea on what the conversation was about given their expressions.

So he counted.

'Three...Two...' And his suspicions were confirmed as he saw the pinkette pull out a bottle and tried to jump the fence to join the competition only for the bluenette to grab a hold of her by the waist and pull her right back.

"_BUT TENI I'M POSITIVE THAT IT WILL MAKE ME IMMUNE TO THE HEAT!"_

"_THAT WOULD BE CHEATING HATSUME!"_

"_NOT IF I DON'T GET CAUGHT!"_

_"NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT!"_

It was his turn to begin laughing, albeit it was composed into a strong chuckle. It had been a very long time since he had a good laugh, he decided to settled in and continued watching alongside Himiko hoping to see more of the familiar trio.

Unfortunately, the stream didn't last that much longer, as the blond known as Bakugou won a few minutes later as the final competitor surrendered by completely collapsing face-first unto the table with a heavy thud.

The crowd around them all reacted differently, from cheers, to boos, and even some exchanging cash on the sides as bets were being paid out. Dabi looked around the crowd when to his surprise, the familiar trio went up to the victory and the red head from earlier along with a few others he hadn't noticed before.

_'So they know Draco Knight's kid huh?'_ He thought as he saw the face of the forest haired boy standing alongside a girl with pink-skin and horns. _'Interesting.'_

* * *

"Two cups of Gold Tips Imperial black tea with a side of sugar cookies for the lady and a warm coffee cake for the gentleman," Jou said as she placed out the snacks for the couple seated, while in the background the door chime rang indicating that another possible customer had entered.

"Be right with you!" Jou called out behind her.

"I've got it Pani!" Rikidou called from the back, voice drawing closer.

"Thanks!" She answered back before turning back to face her current patrons. "My apologies, how is everything?"

"It's no problem!" The short lady with magenta hair bound into twin pigtails and pink eyes lined with purple chirped as she took a sip of her drink, "Mmmmm! The tea is fantastic! Isn't Tobi?"

The tall older gentleman with slicked back white hair, piercing blue eyes, with an equally white handle-bar mustache and a medium beard nodded. "Indeed, an exquisite brew after a long day of filming Ai."

"Excellent!" Jou answered with a closed eyed smile while she gave them a small bow, "Let me know you need anything else," With that Jou turned around to spot a familiar duo plus one.

"Oh hey!" Jou said with a smile drawing close to the trio chatting with Rikidou.

"Oh hey Mori!" Izuku greeted with a wide smile while holding Eri in his arms, next to him was Ochako who waved along with her own greetings.

"I didn't know you and Satou worked here!" Said Ochako with a slight look of embarrassment, since they had been here before and apparently didn't notice the two.

"Well we're not here all of the time," Jou explained while Rikidou was sorting some of the newer baked items into the front display. "It's quite possible that you came here during one of our off days or when we're at my parents' restaurant across the street."

Rikidou then popped his head up from behind the display with a specific treat on hand.

"And here's one of our newest items. An apple tart!" He said as he handed what appeared to be a small slice of pie with an elegant row of thinly sliced apples on top to Eri. "On the house for you." He added with a big grin.

"Oh that looks really yummy," Ochako commented upon seeing larger version of the tart displayed behind the glass case in front of them. Which happened to be next to a series of baked goods that only were seen on TV or online which piqued her interest. "Are these all foreign?"

"Riki's dad wanted to expand into making some more western style goods so we been trying something different every day of the week along with the normal things we carry." Jou explained with a motion of her hand; showing some of the newer confections along with the more traditional Japanese ones. Fresh pies, crispy tarts, and sweet puddings stood proudly alongside the colorful Mochis, smiling Taiyakis, and plump Manjus.

"I know that Eri loves apples, and I sure could use a taste tester." Rikidou interjected.

Eri looked at Izuku for permission. Izuku in turn simply nodded as he didn't want to downplay their giant classmate's generosity.

"Thank you!" Eri chirped at she gently grabbed the slice before she took a nibble from the golden baked morsel. Her eyes widened, "HMMM! Mama! Papa! It's really yummy!" Eri exclaimed with bright wide eyes before she took another bite and another and another.

Jou struggled keep from squealing at the adorable reaction coming from the Unicorn child, before managing to recover and get back to her job. "So aside from the free-sample, would you guys like a table? Or are you taking to go?"

"Actually, we were here to both get a few snacks for the road and so Eri could use the restroom, but unfortunately it doesn't seem like you guys have one for public use." Ochako answered motioning her head at Eri who was busy popping a small piece of the tart into Izuku's mouth with a giggle.

"Hmhm, weh jush finhed trainin," Izuku said while trying to eat the tart as quickly as possible.

Jou and Rikidou looked at each other for only a moment.

Yet in that moment, unknown to the trio of cinnamon rolls, a silent nod passed between the two that seemed to say far more than at first glance.

"I can let you take Eri to use our private restroom, while Uraraka can stay here." Rikidou offered moving to the side of the display and opened up the side door for them to enter.

"Oh you sure that's alright?" Ochako asked not wanting Rikidou to get in trouble.

"It's fine, Pani can hold down the fort right?" Rikidou answered turning to Jou.

"Aye cap'n!" Jou responded with a playful salute while sticking out her tongue.

"Thanks Satou," Izuku said mouth now clear of the tart as he made his way past the side door and let himself be guided by Rikidou to the back. "We'll right back Ochako."

"No problem thanks Satou!" Ochako called back, while Jou guided her to a seat. "Take a load off, let me just check-up on my earlier guests and I'll take your order to go."

"Okay thanks Mori."

Ochako watched as Jou made her way toward the only two customers, who remained in the shop. She took the time to pull out her phone and was about to send a quick text message to Inko that they would be back soon, when she realized that she had received a text from someone else earlier and hadn't noticed.

* * *

_**Bomberman (Katsuki): I don't say this often, and I'll deny it if you ever mention it, but thanks for helping today**_**.**

* * *

Ochako chuckled to herself, she didn't feel like she needed thanks given that she really didn't do anything. Inko had done most of the work making the cake, she just helped with the prep work. But she also wasn't going to deny the thanks. It was an olive branch to let the two best friends hangout without her third-wheeling and letting them just have fun. She still had an overall great time with Inko.

"Thank you come again!" She heard Jou say to the other clients who were making their exit. She quickly sent the text to Inko, as Jou returned with a glass of water.

"Here, Midoriya mentioned that you guys just finished some training so I imagine you might be a bit parched." She said while taking out a small pad for noting down orders. "Do you know what you want or would you like a little more time?"

Ochako took a quick drink of the ice cold water, sighing with satisfaction, "Thanks Mori, and yes I'm ready. Can I please get some strawberry and green tea mochi please?" she widened her eyes as she remembered, "Oh and can you throw in a few more slices of that apple tart from earlier in a separate bag please?" Ochako asked politely as Jou wrote down her order with a nod.

"Sure thing, mama," Jou retorted with a playful wink, "I'll be right back with your order." She added as she retreated to the display to make Ochako's order. While Ochako went back to answering Katsuki's text.

* * *

_**Gravity Queen (Ochako): You don't have to thank me. I'm just glad you and Izuku had fun!**_

_**Bomberman (Katsuki): I'm trying to be nice damn it!**_

_**Gravity Queen (Ochako): LOL okay okay! I get it! You're welcome.**_

_**Bomberman (Katsuki): Damn straight!**_

* * *

_'Well at least we're starting to get along...I think?'_ Ochako thought to herself with a giggle.

"Read something funny?" Jou asked as she returned with two small paper bags containing Ochako's order in one hand and placing it on the table, before taking a seat opposite of Ochako. "Phew, time for quick break since no else is here at the moment."

"Yep, a funny text from a friend." Ochako answered as she checked over her order. "They look so yummy!"

"You should see how they're made," Jou said with laugh, "Riki's dad hulks up and pounds the mix by hand rather than using a machine or hammer."

"So they're completely handmade then!" Ochako said surprised knowing that mochi could be quite laboring without the use of machines, but having a strength quirk powered by sugar can help get the job done for a bakery.

"Yep, he firmly believes in the homemade touch," Jou answered casually, though her expression turned concerning. "So, how is the holiday going for you Uraraka?"

"It's been alright, I'd be lying if I wasn't a little bummed about not spending the holiday with my folks back in Mie, but I've talked with them before bed almost every night this week."

"Wow, country girl huh?" Jou remarked surprised by this tidbit, Ochako nodded.

"It could have been worse, I had expected to spend my holiday completely alone, until I met Izuku and Eri. Since then, I've basically been living with them. How about you Mori? How is your holiday going?"

"That's good to hear...as for me? Nothing too special, except either going out with Riki to a festival on Tuesday which was fun and helping him train for the Sports Festival."

Ochako nodded,the conversation trailing off right there.

After a pause, Jou sighed before starting a new slightly more uncomfortable topic.

"Hey Uraraka I have a question for you."

"Oh?" Ochako looked up at the amber eyes looking at her with some curiosity.

"How is Midoriya doing?" She asked somewhat cryptically with a more flat tone of voice.

"...He's fine why?" Ochako questioned, she didn't know Jou all too well, but from her previous encounters during school she seemed like a nice person. This was rather odd to her.

"When we return to UA, be wary about who you trust there." Jou warned cautiously.

"What do you mean?" Ochako asked now a bit concerned.

"I've been hearing some...rather unnerving rumors that have been spreading around recently about Midoriya back at school. I personally have nothing against him nor does Riki so that's why we wanted to give you a heads up about who you trust at school." Jou explained with a whisper, while pulling out her phone, reading some the texts from her group chat where she had gotten some of this information.

"But it seems like others aren't comfortable with...Draco Knight's kid being among them. Riki and I think it's wrong to go behind Midoriya's back like this."

Ochako frowned. _'It's not fair, Izuku hasn't done anything wrong...and with Eri's adoption hanging in the balance...'_

"Thank you for telling me Mori." Ochako breathed out gratefully, bowing slightly.

"Hey, I still owe you for saving my butt from the giant robot at the entrance exam!" Jou answered patting one of Ochako's hands, her expression turning softer. "And besides, dating Riki taught me not to judge a book by its cover, and given everything I've seen of Midoriya, I can safely say I'm on your side."

"We're back!" Izuku exclaimed returning with Eri in his arms and Rikidou came up behind him. The two girls quickly got up from her seats and met back up at the counter near the register, when Ochako noticed Eri's face was stained red with some kind of red jelly.

"What happened?" Ochako asked with a giggle as Eri was enjoying her time licking the jelly that was around her mouth.

"I got to see all of the yummy treats mama!" Eri exclaimed with happily as Rikidou laughed and ruffled her hair a bit.

"Really?"

"Well after Eri was done using the restroom, Satou decided to show us to where all the pastries get made." Izuku explained motioning his head toward the back.

"They met my parents who were doing a new set of experimental tarts, which included a raspberry jam tart which Eri took to liking quite a bit," Rikidou interjected while handing Ochako some towelettes to help clean her face. "They were happy for the feedback they got from her."

"The order is written up there Riki!" Jou exclaimed in the background as she began wiping down the table that Ochako and herself had used.

"Thanks!" Rikidou called back as he took the paper that was hidden behind the display and began ringing up their total. "That will be 2200."

Izuku and Ochako both chipped in to paid for their snacks, neither of them knowing that Rikidou had thrown in a discount.

"Thank you for your kindness Satou, Mori," Izuku and Ochako said both grateful for their treatment here, while Eri mimicked them.

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome!" The two answered as Jou moved to the back of the display with Rikidou, leaning in on him as the trio made their exit.

"Did you warn Uraraka?" Rikidou whispered once they were out the door.

"Yep, I'll keep an ear out in the business course students to see what general studies is cooking up...did you tell Midoriya?"

Rikidou sighed, "I didn't have the heart to tell him." He admitted shamefully, "while we were waiting for Eri to finish up in the restroom, he told me that he and his mom are on probationary period for Eri's adoption."

Jou gasped.

"How I tell him that some of the students at UA want to get him kicked out, with that looming over his head?"

"Then more of a reason for us to help them out...since I told Uraraka, I'm sure she'll keep an eye out...I'm going to start cleaning up for the closing okay?" Jou finished up as she began empty out her apron, and giving Rikidou a peck on the cheek.

Rikidou sighed leaning on the display with his hands under his chin, looking at the trio who were still visible from the window. Outside of the bakery the trio were making their way back to Izuku's apartment, enjoying the peaceful walk back as Eri began to munch on another apple tart, while it seemed like Ochako had begun leaning on Izuku, wrapping her arm around his own and holding on his hand while extending her pinky to avoid using her quirk.

Rikidou chuckled as even from here, he could see Izuku go stiff for a brief moment as Ochako got close, only for him to slowly relax into her side before going over the horizon and out of sight.

_'Yeah...he's in good hands.'_

* * *

_**Thursday**_

Tomura sat alone in the bar, his dangerous mood indicated by a small twitch of his neck and fingers.

_'He's late...' _He thought with a groan, resisting the urge to scratch at his neck as he looked at the clock mounted on top of the bar room. Kurogiri should have returned by now with his other brother: Mimicry. He was tired from all of the extra work that had been piled onto him to make up for his failure at the USJ, still he had at least started to get the ball rolling for his redemption in his master's eyes.

Now it was simply a matter of time and making sure that his remaining game pieces on the board would cooperate one way or another.

Finally, Tomura heard the sounds of Kurogiri's wrap gate opening up at the edge of the bar and out came a young man with neat violet hair carrying a grateful expression that he was out of a stuffy uniform and into a much more comfortable casual orange T-shirt and dark blue jeans. Next to him was Kurogiri who wordlessly made his way to the back of the bar to start mixing their favorite drinks.

"You're late Mimicry," Tomura answered with annoyance clear in his voice.

"Can't a guy enjoy a few extra rounds of Karaoke on his day off?" Minicry answered with an exaggerated shrug of his shoulders as he took a seat two spots away from Tomura's corner seat. **"Especially with a voice like mine hahaha! The girls just love it!" **He added mimicking the voice of a popular J-pop artist while placing his hand on his chest. However, upon seeing Tomura's unamused face he quickly changed his tune.

_'This guy needs to get laid it's not like any of us can have kids,' _Mimicry thought to himself, "I've got everything from my end in place Tomura," he continued with sigh, returning to his normal speaking voice as Kurogiri handed him a drink.

"Thank you Uncle Kuro!" Mimicry exclaimed happily before lifting the drink to Tomura; "To your good health my dear brother!"

Tomura rolled his eyes as he watched Mimicry take a sip of his drink while Kurogiri handed him his own. Next to the RPG he had recently gotten to play, a good drink was a good way to greatly improve his mood.

"Good, once you get rid of the rat that works in Doumeki's office, I can have Stain move forward with the next step." Tomura answered back with a sigh of his own taking a quickly glance of his list of targets that Stain had already dealt with.

"Well speaking of Stain, getting him to change his M.O. was a stroke of genius," Mimicry interjected as he took another sip of his drink, "The cops keep arguing if this is a "new" Stain that is simply a copycat, or the original who has updated his methods to give them the slip. Needless to say, I've been making sure to keep them on their toes," he grinned after another sip, "Not to mention Himiko's public body double stunts only helped add to the confusion."

Tomura nodded, but his face kept on a frown. Despite getting him to work him, Stain was still very annoying to deal with from time to time as he often just wanted to keep hunting any old pro when he could but Tomura needed him to continue hunting their list of witnesses.

"Oh, a little heads up on the Saturday op you might wanna know about," Mimicry suddenly spoke up as he pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket.

"Oh?"

"Doumeki's ordered that everyone's gear be maxed out. I'm talking real heavy shit, as in fuck the normal 9mm guns, he's having everyone pack the heavier caliber stuff that might seriously fuck you up and fuck anyone else up if you get hit by it," Mimicry warned cautiously having seen what difference between the two first hand while handing Tomura the list of equipment that the Overhaul Transport team was expected to carry.

"Good to know...Will you be at the Saturday operation to break out Overhaul?" Tomura answered with a grin as he skimmed through the paper.

"Indeed I will, I'll in the second car behind Doumeki's, but in front of the one that carries the heroes joining us for the Op so do make sure that you don't end up killing me by accident." Mimicry answered with a fake whine in his voice, while lightly swirling his drink in his right hand.

"I'm not going on the operation my dear little brother...after all Overhaul is Yakuza. And any yakuza business is to be handled by our dearest youngest brother as per his own request to the Master."

Mimicry froze his ruby-red eyes growing wide before letting out a loud shrill of a laugh. "So he's going solo?!" Mimicry banged his hand hard against the bar during his continuous laughter, much to Kurogiri's annoyance.

"Just shut up and enjoy your drink Mimicry..." Tomura gritted out now equally annoyed. "It's hard enough to juggle all of these damn pieces who think they have minds of their own. And he's not going alone, he'll have some back-up in the form of some weaker Noumu that have already been attuned to listening to his commands, but that's not for you to worry about."

"Ooooh! Do tell! It's been sooo long since we've had a chance to really talk my dear brother of mine." Mimicry teased with a boyish grin on his face. "Besides venting is good for you!"

Tomura wasn't normally one for sharing,\ but he knew that Mimicry wouldn't betray him. After all Mimicry had fallen from grace by their brother's hand, spared only because of his hacking and infiltration skills.

Mimicry would rather die than see him as the successor even more so than Tomura. So keeping Mimicry happy and on his side was simply the smarter thing to do.

"Kurogiri's been working overtime moving things and people around for us," Tomura started off after taking a deep gulp of his drink and motioning his head to their silent bartender who was taking the chance to wipe down some dusty glasses. "Giran just filled a rather unique request for the Neocon boss."

"Remind me again, is that old fart actually on our side?" Mimicry questioned unsure of the answer, in case he ever needed to use his cover to get some wet work done.

"No, just another pawn in my plans but one that is becoming increasingly annoying at that...it's taking everything in Giran's power to keep him in line with generous funds and support for their _movement_. But now the old codger went ahead and ordered a batch of Trigger out of the blue!"

"Maybe the old man just wants to get high?" Mimicry suggested with a laugh until he realized something strange. "Wait I thought that Giran doesn't deal drugs, I always thought that the guy deals in support gear only."

Tomura's mouth finally turned to a grin.

"Normally he doesn't deal drugs, but if it keeps the old man in line then so be it. It simply gives us more blackmail material to work with in case we really need to bring him to heel," Tomura grinned, "And, with all the other Yakuza trying to snatch up Overhaul's old territory, drugs like trigger have been flowing like water in the underworld."

"The Four Cardinal Kings." Mimicry said his tone becoming flat as his previous enjoyment was gone in an instant. "A right pain in my ass with all the work they keep piling on my plate, especially with the government trying to suppress the media about their underworld fights."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Tomura said with a forward glance, careful with how he played around with his fingers on the bar. "Them and the remainder of the Eight Precepts of Death that are still loose are causing most of my damn headaches right now. So far the feds have been keeping the underworld fights quiet and out of the news, but we know those prideful idiots are going to do something big and stupid unless we can have someone bring them back in order."

Mimicry's eyes grew wide.

"Don't tell me..."

"He and Himiko met up with Southern and Eastern Cardinal Kings on Monday night to stake his claim. And since our dear little brother is about to make his public debut this Saturday I went ahead and had Giran use some of his connections to whip up something that...I personally found very fitting!" Tomura finished up with a dark chuckle; pulling out a picture and slid it to Mimicry who was taking another sip of his drink.

Mimicry took the square piece and only took a glance at it; only to end up spiting out his drink over the bar.

"How fitting indeed! Daddy's little boy...He is going to be veeeery angry wearing that." Mimicry cackled with a sickening smile.

"_Was," _Tomura corrected, "he had to wear it for the meeting with that outfit and his face, he should've had enough proof that he is the son of the old Phoenix King."

"So it's time for them to have a new boss huh?"

"Not yet, they want to see a demonstration of his power; Saturday's mission will be his proving grounds for them," he tapped his glass, "That he is strong enough to be their new leader, by breaking out another Yakuza boss from their ancient enemy: The Police."

"So Overhaul is just going end up being a puppet for them eh?" Mimicry questioned unsure what else would be in store for someone who could cause a number of problems if left unchecked.

"Overhaul doesn't matter in the long term, we have his research for those quirk destroying bullet and could always use that as a back-up plan, unless he cooperates. If he doesn't, we'll just kill him; Himiko can just serve as his double until we have the remaining members of Overhaul's old gang under our brother's control absorbed into the Southern gang." Tomura answered with a nod.

"It has been thirteen years since the last Phoenix King died, now everyone in both the light and the dark will see the new one be born...and just in time since I encountered the debut of the new Draco Knight back at the USJ. Only this time the new Phoenix King has a few aces up his sleeve."

Mimicry then lifted his drink as he mockingly proclaimed, "All hail His Grace the new Phoenix King!"

Both men suddenly went silent, until both began to chuckle lightly, a chuckle that only grew into a roaring fit of laughter. Finding the irony of the situation completely delicious, knowing that a rematch between The Phoenix and The Dragon would be a fight no one would want to miss.

* * *

**Authors Commentary**

*Eri's Psychiatrist: I actually consulted with a pediatric psychiatrist for this scene. I happened to be lucky enough to know more than a handful of doctors of various specialties in my line of work; the doctor in question being one of them. What I wanted to basically emphasize that dealing with mental health is very specialized and best handled on a case-by-case basis when possible.

Since I know the importance of this and I don't want to seem like I am trivializing mental health concerns and while I managed to hand wave a few key things for the sake of streamlining the story. I felt an obligation to address Eri trauma and recovery as respectfully as possible; knowing that imprinting could be very concerning in shaky situations like this.

** Symbolism in the Yakuza Sub-culture. Yakuza throughout history have had an extremely interesting view of themselves; compared to various other criminal organizations like it. Sharing general ideas of a "family" unit alongside community and

having some rather elaborate rituals with those of say the Sicilian Mafia or "Cosa Nostra".

Yakuza are well known in there use of classical Japanese/Asian symbols in the form of mascots, tattoos, titles, etc. The modern day Yakuza is of course very different from what we see in the MHA universe as shells from their heights of power and was something I wanted to explore outside The Eight Precepts of Death: based on the Eight Precepts that could be found in some sects of Buddhism.

The Four Cardinal Kings were inspired and based on the Four Symbols found in mythology throughout Asia. Which includes certain elements that you may find interesting if you take the time to look it up.

***Made Guys: I'm using terms that are more in line with the Sicilian Mafia to make a simplify the complexities of the Yakuza hierarchy (because JESUS it can get really complicated) But to also show that in the years after quirks came into the mix have had to change things about themselves in order to adapt and survive in the world of MHA.

_**-X**_


End file.
